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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Hide and Seek (08/07/08)
Hide and seek is as old as the human condition. Adam and Eve introduced it in the Garden of Eden. God counted to ten, and then took a walk in the Garden in the cool of the day while Adam and Eve found well-positioned fig leaves to hide behind. And with that, the great human game was born.

If you ever played hide and seek with your childhood friends, you may remember that some hiding places are better than others. Find a dark closet and close the door, and you may remain hidden for a while. Stand sideways behind a skinny tree, and the game is over quickly.

If you’ve ever played hide and seek with God you have no doubt discovered that fig leaves, no matter how large or well-positioned, never provide sufficient cover to hide you from the sharp eye of our garden-strolling God.

Paul Lawrence Dunbar, the African-American Poet who once penned The Mask, gave us a stark reminder that our human tendency is to play a kind of hide and seek with one another. With smiling faces, we often successfully conceal our inner tears.

We play hide and seek with God because, like Adam and Eve, we are ashamed. We have allowed our baser selves to rise up and win far too often. We have lingered far too long and listened to the seductive serpent’s siren. We have stood in the garden of goodness, filled with trees of life-giving fruit, and we have sought out the lone tree of destruction and despair. We have taken, and we have eaten of the fruit of sorrow and shame. And, hearing the footsteps of the Lord, we have tried to hide our pitiful state.

But we have found that what we can hide from others, we can never hide from God. Sin is exposed when confronted by righteousness. God always sees the truthful tears behind the smiling mask. He sees the darkness that we try to hide underneath a multitude of religious leaves.

In hide and seek, the game ends when the hidden one is discovered. It’s true in the backyard, and it’s true in the Garden. But do not despair. It is good for some games to end. And if you can trust God enough with your truth, your shame, your regrets and sin, you may discover that life is better-lived in the sunlight than hidden away in the dark.

And so, let the games end. We have cowered in our hiding places long enough. The time has come to take off the mask and come out from behind that tree. God has drawn near. Hidden and lost no longer, we have been found.

Thanks be to God!
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Member Comments
Member
Date
Sunny Loomis 
08/17/08

You've made some excellent points here. Keep writing.
Edmond Ng
08/19/08
Thanks be to God ... we have been found! There's no place we can hide from God, so we'll have to come clean before Him in all areas of our unholy lives, even if we are ashamed. Thank you for sharing this insightful perspective.