God Hides Things FOR Us Not FROM Us

There was a game we loved to play growing up. It was called “Skop die Blik”, translation = “Kick the Tin” It is a hide-and-seek-type game played outside at night. A tin can is set up as home base and someone is “on”. After the tin can is kicked away as far as possible by someone, everyone runs and hides while the person who is on, has to run, fetch the tin can, put it back in its place and then go and look for those hiding. When they find anyone, they run back to the can, putting their foot on it and declaring, “1,2,3, block” and that person has to then sit at home base. But, a participant who has not yet been found, may come and kick the tin can to free all those who may have been blocked.

As you can imagine, this game would go on late into the night. For us teenagers, it was a way of playing a more adult version of hide-and-seek.

The joy of becoming a grandfather in the last few years has again reminded me of the hidden delight in every kid to play Hide-and-Seek. Watching my three year old grandkids hide behind something, then squealing with delight when I find them absolutely thrills my heart. I love to see their face light up when they find their “Pop Pops” who is not hiding very well because I want them to find me easily. Every time I play hide and seek, I can’t help but think about how God made us in His image and how much He loves to hide things for us.

Proverbs 25:2

God conceals the revelation of his word in the hiding place of his glory.

But the honor of kings is revealed by how they thoroughly search out the deeper meaning of all that God says.

It may be a mystery to us why God hides things, but fortunately He has revealed that He loves to hide things so that we can find them. I am sure He has very good reasons, (only some of which are revealed to us), but what is important to understand is that God hides things FOR us not from us. When we know that, the game is on!

As followers of Christ, we are all kings, a royal priesthood, and our glory is seen in how thoroughly we will seek out revelation from God and His Word.

Glory is a difficult word to describe. Much like the word “beauty”. Beauty is something that is seen. The glory of God is everything about God made visible through something or someone. When we look at a beautiful landscape, we could just see things like mountains, trees, rocks, water, clouds etc or we can see the beauty of how they have been created to be part of a landscape in various proportions blending together to reveal a unique and amazing Creator. Creation reveals the Creator.

Seeking out the things that God has hidden FOR us reveals our glory. When Jesus began teaching in parables,  “his disciples approached Jesus and asked, “Why do you always speak to people in these hard-to-understand parables?”

He explained, “You’ve been given the intimate experience of insight into the hidden truths and mysteries of the realm of heaven’s kingdom, but they have not. For everyone who listens with an open heart will receive progressively more revelation until he has more than enough. But those who don’t listen with an open, teachable heart, even the understanding that they think they have will be taken from them. That’s why I teach the people using parables” (Matt 13:10-13 TPT)

It seems like God takes us on a journey to discover the “hidden things”, so that we will never forget the truth that He reveals. The more we discover, the more we search for revelation, the more God uncovers His Glory to us and through us. The journey to discovery is just as important as the discovery.