Encountering God’s Love: Face to FaceSample

Day One: Hiding

The word ‘hiding’ creates a cacophony of emotions, memories, and feelings as individual as each one of our individual journeys. 

For many, hiding elicits memories of a playful game with a parent which ended in giggling and bouts of laughter after our perfect hiding spot (behind the curtain) was discovered by our very clever mummy or daddy. Sadly to another, hiding meant reducing herself to her smallest size while barely breathing in the corner of a dark closet, praying her violent and inebriated father wouldn’t take his deep-seated pain out on her once again.

As an adult, we can hide those areas of us we prefer not to be seen, while equally hiding memories of a past we prefer to forget. I find it interesting that as we age hiding becomes increasingly negative, with very little connotation of the joy, fun, or laughter often held as a child. 

Perhaps it relates to how and when hiding started: in the Garden of Eden. In this perfect paradise, Adam and Eve experienced blissful, beautiful, unhindered laughter and ease with their Father – naked and unashamed before him and one another.  But an enemy lurked nearby, ready to tempt and test their innocence. A test which proved too much for newly created humanity.

Hiding may have started by another, but it must end with us. Recognizing our responsibility is an important step toward true intimacy. Each of us must choose vulnerability over fear if we want to deepen our intimacy with another person; it is the same with God. Expecting God to invade our protective boundaries is to remove our power of choice, and true love would never make such a request. If I expect you to trust me simply because I believe that I am trustworthy, then I have limited your ability to choose. That is control, and there is no control in love.

Imagine, like Adam and Eve after they sinned, you were hiding in the bushes on that fateful day, ashamed of what you had done, afraid of how you would be seen, regretting the choice that you had made … when suddenly you hear a voice filled with such deep love that it sounds like mighty waters of peace, acceptance, joy, forgiveness, and grace all wrapped in one saying to you: Where are you?

Reflect: 

In what areas have you found, or do you find, yourself hiding from God? 

If you knew you would never experience rejection from God, would you change anything today in your relationship with Him?