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When God Plays Hide-and-Seek with You

When God Plays Hide-and-Seek with You

Last updated on: October 11, 2013 at 11:45 am by Jack Alexander

When God Plays Hide-and-Seek with You 2013-10-11T11:45:56-06:00 Jack Alexander

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I don’t think it coincidence that C. S. Lewis started with a simple game of hide-and-seek when he penned The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. The land of Narnia was only revealed in all its glory through Lucy’s participation in the process of intentional concealment and discovery.

Although Lewis may not have intended it, his story depicts the process of hide-and-seek that God often uses to reveal both His glory and ours:

It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out. (Prov. 25:2)

The Process of Mutual Glory

He doesn’t have to do it, but God chooses to most fully glorify Himself by involving us in the glorification process. Lest you be concerned, it’s not as if we are snatching away glory rightly due Him by uncovering out what He has hidden. Instead, we bask in the glow of His glory when we do so and become blessed by our closer proximity to Him.

Think of when God concealed Himself from Moses on Mount Sinai, for example. God hid Himself from Moses, yet Moses’ face beamed after the experience. God revealed only a backward glimpse of Himself to Moses, yet his servant radiated with a glory of his own because of it.

We could call it a process of mutual glory. God gets glory by hiding. We get glory by seeking – and finding our greatest satisfaction when we find Him. As John Piper put it, “God is most magnified in us when we are most satisfied in him.”

Hiding and Seeking Forever

Only the One who already knows can hide. That’s the whole point of the hide-and-seek game isn’t it? The one who conceals knows where he or she is hidden, but no one else. It wouldn’t be much fun if the seeker began with infinite knowledge of those hidden.

But if the Hider had infinite knowledge, He could systematically share it, piece by piece, with the seekers. If the seeker was created for seeking – and finding – the process would be the most fulfilling one imaginable.

Sometimes I wonder if that is what heaven will be like? Could it be an endless process of God hiding –wisdom, truth, reason for praise, beauty, complexity, or the depths of His love – and of our seeking it out with faces glowing, hearts burning, and voices grateful proclaiming His praises?

I hope so.

Do you ever feel as if God is playing hide-and-seek with you? Have you ever considered how that process may benefit both Him and you? Leave a comment below with your thoughts.

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