Hide and Seek
By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president
Playing hide and seek with very young children is one of the fun things that parents and grandparents can do. Young children, at times, just haven’t quite figured out how to play the game.
I remember playing this game with some of my children when they were young, and I would count while they ran to hide. When the counting was finished, I would yell, “Ready or not, here I come!” I would hear a giggle and know right away where they were hiding. Other times, they would only hide a portion of themselves, and I would round the corner and see their feet poking out from under the curtains.
It was even more fun to have them count while I went to hide. They would count, “One, two, three, five, ten!” and yell, “Ready or not, here I come!” leaving me barely enough time to hide as they skipped numbers in their hurry to come find me. At times, they would go to the same location where they had found me before and wonder why I didn’t use that spot again.
Other times, they would wander around looking under pillows that were obviously too small for a grown man to hide under. I would usually have mercy on them and make small sounds or sometimes even whisper their name loudly in order to guide them to my hiding spot. Then it would be all smiles and laughter as they proclaimed, “I found you, Daddy!”
Jeremiah 29:13–14 (NKJV) tells us that God wants to be found by us:
'And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ says the Lord.
God wants to be found by you. He promises that you will find Him. In fact, He is always letting us know where He is so that He can be found. He lets us know through the pages of the Bible. He lets us know through creation. He lets us know through interactions with godly people. There are countless ways God is calling out to each of us, letting us know that He is there—ready to be found.
God wants to be found by you. God wants to be found by those who have no knowledge of Him. God wants to be found by those who used to know Him. Pentecost is about God pouring Himself out in Spirit form so that He can be found — so that He can fully embrace those seeking Him and they can rejoice and laugh together.
We can be a part of that for others as well by inviting people to seek God and by assuring them that He wants to be found by them.