Hide and Seek

Hide and seek is a game we all played growing up. We know how to play this game even if we came from different backgrounds: whether you are black or white, poor or rich or in between, or you came from a different country, the name of the game might be different according to the uniqueness of each country languages, but the rule of the game does not change, it is still the same.

Hide-and-seek is a game in which one player closes his/her eyes for a brief period of time (often counting up to whatever number that has been said between the players before the game started) while the other players hide. The seeker then opens his/her eyes and tries to find the hiders; the first one found is the next seeker, and the last is the winner of the round. When the game starts if you are one of the players among the hiders, your number one goal is not to be found by the seeker so you can win, in a brief moment you look for a place or space you can hide from the seeker hoping he/she would not find you, personally, I would choose a place they probably might overlook, like, laundry basket 😂, who would look in the laundry basket thinking they might be here (I don't fit there any more 🤣), not many people. While you are playing this game if the seeker finds you, then you have to take his/her place to seek those who are hiding in different places.

It was Thursday morning, and I woke up not feeling my best because COVID got into my system for the second round 😔. Honestly, I was a little bit insulted 😒, so I decided to attend Bible study online, instead of feeling bad for myself I chose to connect with a group of people that speaks encouragement to one another so I can encounter the courage and strength my heavenly Father gracefully gave me for that day. As I was listening to each of the ladies speaking the word that resonated with them from Jeremiah 29, it was these phrases I heard that caught my attention deeply, HIDE AND SEEK. When I heard those words, it reminded me of the song READY OR NOT by Fugees: Ready or not, here I come, you can't hide, Gonna find you and make you want me. And one of the ladies who was speaking at that moment said: “Because of our relationship, God plays with me like Hide and Seek.” I knew what she meant, she was describing her relationship with God, and the closest term she came up with to describe her relationship with Him was HIDE AND SEEK. The beats of this word has a rhythm of their own and I couldn't stop thinking where this sounds wanted to take me, then God who doesn't miss no opportunity showed up and dropped the word that led me straight to Genesis 3; whether you are a believer and follower of Christ or not, all of us know the story of the forbidden fruit and the consequences of their decision.

The forbidden fruit we have all bitten caused us to hide from God but that did not stop Him from seeking us. Every decision has its own result and some of those results sometimes put us in shackles, throw us in prison, and buried us in the grave without a single explanation of what took place. As much as some of y’all like to hate on my boy Adam and my girl Eve, I would like to offer you a different perspective that will enlighten you about the story so you can have grace for your own. All of us have the information about how my girl Eve ate the fruit and gave it to Adam and the result was they both lost the one thing that connected them to God to have access to everything God prepared for them; which is the Holy Spirt, without Him they encounter DEATH (death is the one thing God didn't create them for). When something dies you remove it from the position you once place it in because life was no longer in it, and that is exactly what Adam did, since they lost Life itself, he removed himself and Eve from the position they were cultivating when they had the breath of life within them because the breath that once makes them alive returned to the One who gave it to them in the first place. Now officer Shame brings the shackle of guilt to bind them to the tree they hide from God, with the little freedom shame offers, they used it to sew fig leaves to cover the part of them that God was never ashamed of. Does this sound like you? How many decisions have you made that give shame the power to put you in the shackles of guilt, in the prison of your past, and in the grave that the enemy prepared for you so you can be with him in the dark? The answer is in your heart, be honest with yourself, just like how Adam and Eve were honest with God. Freedom starts from the honesty of your heart.

Honesty is the only policy that gives you access to freedom (not the kind of honesty you chose to speak rudely to the person). When I read Adam and Eve's response, I was amazed at their honesty, he said “the woman you gave me”; which is true, God gave Eve as a helper. At that time he didn't name her because he didn't have her full identity until God gave the promise to the serpent in Genesis 3:15, then he said “she gave me the fruit”, which she did and the best part of this honesty was when he said “I ate”, he didn't blame his wife, he simply admitted what he did, and she did the same as her husband, she said “the serpent deceived me”, which he did, then she said “I ate”, which she did. The beauty of this story was when God cursed the very thing that caused them to lose access to life in front of them to show them how it was powerless in the presence of God and God is doing the same thing for you. It is impossible for the enemy to win when he already lost, all he can do is try to make you believe you are lost too. But when the Voice calls your name, no shackles can bind you, no prison can capture you, and no grave can hold you from coming to the One who called you by your name.

No matter what your past was, it is not stronger than God’s voice, He called you by your name and you are His, which means the sound you heard is the key to access to His presence, in His presence nothing can stand against, hold, or bound you. So come to Him with your mess, He knows how to clean you up, and send you a message that will set you, your family, the people you are connected to, and the people you are anointed to cover free from the bondage the enemy uses to hold you captive. Your shame hides you but His mercy seeks you, and where ever you are hiding, God always finds you and brings you back to Him.