The other day I was playing hide and seek with my 2 year old and she kept telling me where she was going to hide. At first I told her that she should just hide and not tell me, but then I realized that she has a total grasp on the actual purpose of the game. We are not supposed to hide and not be found, we are hiding so that we can be found and her favorite part is being found. Isn’t this really what we do with God. We hide, it seems like all the time we try to hide, but in the end we are really just hoping to be found. How often do we run away or stay away thinking we just can’t don’t need God or we just don’t need our church or Mosque or Synagogue, or that what we really need is something else? How often do we play this game with each other trusting that others will always be there no matter how long we hide? Yet each time (once we are ready) what we really want is to be found. When I was in graduate school the first paper I had to write was on Psalm 139 where it talks about playing hide and seek with God. There is no darkness, no high place and no low place where we can truly hide from God, so I wonder why we keep trying. I guess I realized in playing with my daughter that sometimes we hide because it is good to be found. What I mean is that sometimes I am not even sure we realize that we are hiding until we are found and we rejoice at being found. I suppose the other side of this is that in the game (and in life) once we are found we are meant to be the seeker. When God find us our response needs to be that we turn around and renew our quest to find God. I believe that we are meant to be seekers and I believe that God wants to be found. My two year old understands this so maybe one day the rest of us can see the wisdom in letting everyone know where we are hiding so that we will never fail to be found.