Hide & Seek

My boys are full of life lessons. They never cease to amaze me by what they teach me along life’s journey. Their recent endeavor involved my solar lights outside on the walkway and football. We live out in the country and have a big front yard. For some reason even though we have a huge area out front to run around, they consistently choose to play football close to the house. Mom gave them some boundaries as they play to hopefully prevent them from breaking anything close to the house.

One day recently, I walked out the front door and the boys were close to the house… again playing football. I warned them that if they weren’t careful that they would break one of the solar lights. As I looked out at the lights I realized one was missing. Hmmmm… I wonder where it went. I asked the boys and was surprised at what I found. I guess it broke and they decided to go put it (or hide it) under the dog house on the side of the garage. When I asked them why… they said they thought it would be safer there in case it rained. When I probed them more I found out that they broke it playing football and tried to hide the fact. It was moments later when mommy came out and discovered it all. They even went to the trouble of rearranging my solar lights so I might not notice, but I saw it immediately. Moms know everything or so it seems.

Why is it that our first instinct when we mess up is to HIDE things? Eventually we are found out and all is revealed. I guess it started at the beginning with Adam and Eve hiding their sin from God.

Genesis 3:7-12 says
When they heard the sound of God strolling in the garden in the evening breeze, the Man and his Wife hid in the trees of the garden, hid from God.

God called to the Man: "Where are you?" He said, "I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. And I hid." God said, "Who told you you were naked? Did you eat from that tree I told you not to eat from?"

The Man said, "The Woman you gave me as a companion, she gave me fruit from the tree, and, yes, I ate it."
God said to the Woman, "What is this that you've done?"

It was their disobedience that caused all the trouble. Disobedience led to falling into sin, hiding it from God, and making excuses. Have you ever been there… done that? Disobeyed maybe your parents and tried to hide it. Have you ever tried to hide things from God thinking He couldn’t see it all on His own? Maybe there is a part of your life you choose to ignore and don’t like to look at… God wants to see into every area of your life.

Disobedience, making bad choices, and hiding our sin doesn’t help us draw closer to God. It pushes us further away from Him. Instead of hiding things from God, we need to invite Him to investigate our lives and become an open book. We need to crack open the book of our lives and let Him look at ALL areas freely as He chooses. I know there are some areas we don’t want to look at… we’d rather lock the door on those rooms and throw away the key, but God wants to know ALL of us. He loves us the same no matter what our lives look like inside or out. Invite Him to a closer look inside of YOU!

"God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand.
I'm an open book to you..." Psalm 139:1 (MSG)

We need to invite God into every area of our lives. He needs to be the center of it and everything we say and do should flow through Him. We need to let God see the good, bad, and ugly. The more of God we let in, the more we will grow to experience His freedom, peace, joy, love, mercy, grace, and presence. Why would we want to keep ourselves from these awesome things by keeping the book of our lives sealed to God?

In order to really know what’s in a book, we’ve got to open it, right? Have you ever ordered a book in the mail that was shrink wrapped? I’m sure if you are an avid reader that you couldn’t wait to rip the wrapping off and start reading. It’s hard to read a book that is sealed shut. Maybe we could read the front and back covers, but that limits us at getting to the meat of what’s inside. How often do we give God the shrink wrapped book version of our lives saying you can have my life God… I’m an open book. It’s all closed up and you can’t read or see the pages. Can we trust God with what is in between the covers of our life? I think so and when we do, we will begin to experience God in a new way.

Why do we think we can hide things from God? Actually it is when we bring things into the light that we are truly set free. Instead of HIDING FROM GOD, I encourage you to SEEK HIM. Chase after Him, tell Him when you fail… ask for forgiveness and move FORWARD. God wants to write some new chapters in the book of your life and you’ll never believe what He has in mind.

Open your life up to Him today… look inside for yourself and ask Him to show you what He sees. Sometimes His perspective makes all the difference! No matter what the pages of the past hold, there is always hope for a new chapter for the future. There are new chapters to be written and life to be lived. Choose today to invite God to be a part of the journey. The books He writes are always inspiring masterpieces!

Let today be a blank page given to God to write a masterpiece using YOUR LIFE as His inspiration!

Living to leave a Legacy!
Julie