It was a rainy afternoon, and the children decided it was a good afternoon for one of their favorite games, hide-and-seek. Mother was baking, and there was still plenty of time before supper. The old barn with its many hiding places was the very best place of all to play. The upstairs loft was full of spiders and mice, and the boys knew their sister would never go up there. Then there was the grain room with the old barrels and boxes and the tack room with its funny straps and leather harnesses, saddles and bridles, even a big round thing with two knobs that Daddy said was a horse collar. Down where the hay bales were stacked was a good place, too. Sometimes you could even hide where the horses feed—if they didn’t come in and scare you.
“Andrew’s IT,” someone shouted. “Close your eyes and count to 50!” As Andrew began to count the other children scattered, each searching for the “best” place to hide.
Little Davey ran here and there and finally dashed into the grain room. Finding a small barrel, he pulled off the lid, climbed in and scrunched down. “Nobody will find me here,” he thought.
“Here I come, ready or not,” called Andrew, and the search was on. “One, two, three on Bobby—I see you!” In ran Jimmy and Kris. “Free! free!” they shouted. Now to find Davey.
Andrew had just begun to look for Davey when they all heard a loud wail coming from the grain room. Rushing in they found little Davey stuck tightly in his “best” hiding place. His little hands were gripping the sides and two very frightened brown eyes filled with tears looked up from the barrel. “We’ll get you out, Davey,” Jimmy said. “Don’t cry.” But no amount of tugging and pulling could even budge him a little. “Let’s get Mother,” they said. And off they ran while Davey, feeling left alone, cried even louder.
Mother came running and the other children, now frightened, also began to cry. Mother could see that Davey was really stuck, and she didn’t know if she could help him. First she sat the children down and stopped all the crying. Next she asked for help from the One who hears even the faintest whisper, the Lord Jesus. Then she looked over the situation to see how he had gotten stuck. After several tries she finally managed to get Davey out of the barrel. The children all whooped and laughed, and as Mother hugged Davey she laughed, too. “You did look awfully funny in that barrel,” she said. “But you better not hide in such a small place like that again.”
Now, we all know that most children like to play hide-and-seek, but do you also know that sometimes children try to hide from God? The Bible tells us that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked....” Jeremiah 17:99The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9). They know they are doing naughty things, so they try to hide. Perhaps they forgot that “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” Proverbs 15:33The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. (Proverbs 15:3). But the Spirit of God shines His light on everything so it is not hidden anymore. Now what? You’re found out! You cannot hide your sins, so what can you do? You cannot do anything, because Christ has done it all on Calvary’s cross. He invites you to come and confess your sins and be saved. He will bring you out of your hiding place and into that wonderful light where you never need to be afraid again. And He will be your dear Friend forever.
ML-03/21/1982