The game of hide and seek is fun no matter how old you are, but it’s absolutely adorable when you’re playing with a little one who thinks they’re unseen when they’re actually in the open, where everyone can see them. The term that describes this is called object permanence, which is the ability to “know an object or person still exists even when they are hidden and you can’t see or hear them.”[i] It’s learned in infancy and practiced all throughout a child’s early development.
Those little ones don’t yet understand that their attempts to hide behind the couch giggling with their heads above the cushions and their eyes closed are amiss. Until we say sweetly, “I see you,” they believe they are hidden. Their brains are still learning that just because they don’t see you, doesn’t mean that you aren’t there. When it comes to the God of the universe, I wonder: Do we have object permanence?
As a grown woman, I am amazed at how many times I catch myself playing this game with God. Not the questioning of His existence because I can’t see Him literally or hear Him audibly–I believe with all that I have and am that He is Almighty Creator, Sustainer, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords God—the one, the only, the true. I also believe that He speaks loud and clear through His Word and through the indwelling Holy Spirit. But the hide and seek game I’m referencing is that of ignoring or pretending that my stuff (and by that I mean hard, broken and sinful stuff) is somehow unnoticed by Him.
What a shame. Because much of the joy of a secure, salvific relationship with God made possible through Jesus comes from us knowing that He sees and knows all of our stuff and still loves us anyway, again made possible through Jesus. It’s the deepest need of every human being to be fully known and fully loved. And so, it’s no coincidence that this is what God does: He knows, He loves.
So why do we pretend, or at minimum, refuse to acknowledge the hard stuff when we know He knows? Sometimes, it’s because we just can’t go there within our own hearts and minds. The timing is not right and that’s okay because, again, He knows. Other times, we are stuck in self-protection mode, where our hearts hurt too much and it’s hard to even trust God with them. And then, perhaps, there’s some of us who just don’t know how to deal, so we cope the best we can. We numb. We continue to struggle when the reality is, we don’t have to.
1-2-3-4-5, ready or not our God has come!
He has said, “I see you.”
“I am the Good Shepherd, I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.” ~John 10: 14-15
He has sought you and saved you. The hiding is over. He knows you. Because His life was laid down for you, the pretending can stop.
“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” ~ 1 John 4: 9-10
He has demonstrated His unconditional love for you. There is no sin or struggle that He cannot see and that He does not cover. The self-protection is no longer necessary.
We can and should live in the Light of what Jesus has done. We do this by bringing our whole selves to Him in communion and confession and repentance through prayer and commitment to love Him and live for Him daily. We fight our sin, our tendency to want to stay hidden, and our self-protective nature by preaching the Gospel to ourselves over and over again and relying on His power to overcome.
We also must choose to let others who live in His Light in. Whether we practice it or not, this is a part of the process, to let someone in. Not everyone, but someone. Maybe a few someone(s) whom we don’t have to pretend with, whom we can be vulnerable with and who we can seek the Lord’s face with. Our confessional community isn’t there to fix us, just to point us to the One who does. It’s flesh and blood fully knowing and still loving us in our mess and it is a beautiful thing.
Sometimes a game of hide and seek with a child ends in anger and a fit (because they didn’t want to be found), but most of the time it ends with a few hugs and a lot of smiles. And a request to play it again! As children of God, let’s choose the latter. Let’s be filled with joy because we are found. And let’s live our lives to the fullest knowing and believing that we are absolutely fully known and loved by Him.
[i] (Morgan, 2023)
Jamie Hoos 