“Could we pierce the veil, and were we vigilant and attentive, God would reveal Himself continuously to us and we should rejoice in His actions in everything that happened to us.”
–Jean Pierre de Caussade
Oh, how I wish that I knew the origins of the game hide-and-seek. My wager would be that in the earliest scientific/anthropological records of peoples and cultures there is evidence of hide and seek. It seems almost natural to play hide and seek with infants from the earliest age. Where did that start? Part of me doesn’t want to say it started in the Garden of Eden, because then there’s the snake, and then my perception of hide and seek isn’t a good one. But I digress slightly. I wonder if there was hide and seek in the Garden before the snake.
It is our nature both to hide and to seek. Does that mean it is in God’s nature to hide? I know He seeks, but does He hide Himself? In asking that question this morning I found these verses:
“Why, O LORD, do you stand far off?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?”
–Psalm 10:1
“Truly You are God, who hide Yourself, O God of Israel, the Savior!”
–Isaiah 45:15 (New King James Version)
And in seeking an answer I found this quote by Christopher Esget, a pastor in Virginia – “God hides Himself in order to reveal Himself in weakness and suffering, in sacrifice and the cross.” (which was from part of a larger thought on his blog). You can agree or disagreen, but his words got me thinking that the power and emphasis is not so much on the hiding, but on the revelation.
When I see an amazing sunset, I stand in awe of God. When I hear of someone’s selfless act, I am in awe. When someone thanks me for my emails, I am dumbfounded (not that I am on par with the sunset). These are but simple ways God reveals Himself to me. God wired me, He knows how to get my attention.
But is God truly hiding, or is it is my ability to see Him, my desire to seek Him, my inability to “pierce the veil” that stand in the way?
I leave you today with these words from Romans 1:20 (though their true power lies comes from Romans 1:21-32) –
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. “