Hide-and-Seek (or Being Lost and Being Found)

“I’m in the cabinet, Nana.” I heard this yelled across the house this morning.

Many kids love hide-and-seek. The strategy differs, though, with age. Our two older kids love staying hidden. Our four-year-old loves being found, which is what prompted his proclamation this morning.

We have played quite a few rounds over the past six months. Very few ‘new’ hiding places remain in the house, which mean the kids return to the same ones – thinking we may not find them this time, or maybe hoping we do.

This morning I thought of the different approaches as it relates to the story Jesus tells about the sheep that gets lost.

I thought about times I have felt lost and hope that light, inspiration, or even writing in the clouds will find me or, at least, help me find my way. I also thought about times when I didn’t want to be found – for whatever reason I didn’t want to have the light shine on me. At least that’s how it began, and then I felt alone and really lost and desperately wanted to know how to get back to the way that leads to life.

In the story Jesus tells, we don’t know if the sheep got lost intentionally or by accident. Maybe it wandered off in search of some succulent nibble, not intending to leave the flock. Or maybe it heard the shepherd whistle, beckon, call and decided that where it was at the time seemed better, only to wind up on its own. We don’t know if the shepherd found it stuck in some bramble, heard it bleating fallen down a cliff, or saw it mindlessly grazing clueless of its potentially perilous predicament.

What we do know from the story is that the shepherd carries the sheep joyfully back to the others.

As I write this, I wonder why I feel I always have to be the one to find my way… I wonder why, at times, I don’t mimic my four-year-old and humbly cry out, “I’m over here, come and find me!”

I wonder if you ever feel lost or hidden from God – whether intentionally or accidentally – and I wonder if you’re brave or humble or child-like enough to call out, “Come and find me.”

I wonder about the times I have cried out, yet it feels like God didn’t find me in the way I thought finding would feel.

I wonder if you’ve ever thought about what being carried joyfully by God feels like.

Maybe it feels like the sunrise warming your face after a long, cold night. The Psalmist, “The darkness is not dark to you, even the dark is like the light,” which I used to take to mean we can’t hide from God. Yet maybe it also means that God is so very good at hide-and-seek that God will not give up until we are found because of God’s great love for us.

As I consider my own life, I wonder in what areas of your life where you might need to be found…

Here’s my prayer for you and for me:

May God’s face shine upon you that you may know God’s delightful and joyful carrying of you back to wherever you need to be on the path to meaningful life. Amen.