We Really Want to be Found

“For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”- Matthew 7:8

My little daughter has got hide and seek all confused. Last night she declared that we were going to play hide and seek and quickly ran off to hide behind her dresser, peering out from around the corner. As I was walking around “looking for her” she jumped out from her hiding spot and shouted “I found you!” bursting into a huge belly laugh. I thought it was hilarious that she didn’t understand that the game ‘hide and seek’ is all about hiding, but after thinking about it a bit, I think she understands the game better than I do.

Think about it, what makes the game exciting is not hiding forever, imagine how boring it would be if you were never found. How often did we call out things like “you’re getting closer” and other hints when we played this game when we were young? Remember the suspense that you experienced when they were getting closer and you were awaiting the moment when they found you? We want to be found, that’s what makes the game fun, that’s what hide and seek is all about, it’s all about seeking and finding and being found. 

Junior High students often ask me about what they should do when their parents ‘force them’ to go to Church. The answer I give them is to just go, sit there and be bored. Just keep sitting and waiting because eventually you will be found. You will realize Whose house you are in, and the Person you want to meet the most will finally have found you and you will fall in love. But you have to play hide and seek in order to be found. You have to seek in order to find and you have to be willing to be caught in order for Him to catch you.

If only we had the common sense of little children when playing this hide and seek game we call life!