Human beings were not made to hide.
From the beginning, our great craving was to know God and be known by Him. After Adam and Eve fell from that lofty relationship, their response was fear, and they hid. They hid because they were ashamed. They hid from God because they didn’t think He would love them if He knew what they really looked like – inside. If He knew what they’d done.
The story of God and the human race is a story of hide-and-seek. This true-life story is not a game; it’s a story of life and death.
Hiding
An awareness that we have sinned still inspires the same reaction in us that Adam had. This has been the flight of the human race since the Garden. Even young children exhibit this natural human tendency to hide our wrongdoing. The older we grow, the harder it becomes to escape this habit.
We hide from God in choices that begin in brief moments and stretch into decades. We hide behind rationalizations and denials. Our hiding is not reserved for God alone but it grows from the same fear. We hide because we’re afraid that if the full truth about us is known we won’t be loved.
Most tragically, when we hide from God we are hiding from outstretched hands and a welcoming embrace, and from the forgiveness and restoration He freely offers, if we would only let Him.
God’s reaction to Adam & Eve was amazing. His simple question was remarkably profound:
“Adam, where are you?”
Why would an omniscient God ask that question? God certainly knew where Adam and Eve were, but He allowed them to hide from Him. Like a parent playing hide-and-seek with a young child, God covered His eyes. He respected Adam’s desire to be ‘unknown.’
That’s where the story really begins. God didn’t just walk away – He came searching for them...
...God is the ultimate seeker.
The Hound of Heaven
“The Hound of Heaven,” is a poem written by Francis Thompson over 100 years ago. After living life as a destitute, opium addict on the streets of London, he found redemption. His marvelous poem is autobiographical, describing the way God relentlessly pursued him while he was utterly, completely lost… and was finally found.
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears…
I’ve posted the YouTube link below before, but it’s worth watching again and again.
It’s a fantastic modern adaptation of Thompson’s poem produced by Emblem Media LLC.
We hide and evade, but God is the one who seeks — unhurrying, unperturbed, refusing to stop — the hound of heaven.
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