Have you ever seen the young child’s version of hide-and-seek, where tiny hands are placed over tightly closed eyes and a little voice calls out, “You can’t see me!”? The innocent mind of the child simply assumes that if he can’t see the person with whom he’s interacting then he must be hidden from view.  Ironically, we never outgrow the game.

Every person who has ever existed or ever will exist is a pro at the game of hide-and-seek and they foolishly play it with a most impressive Being – the Almighty God. There are some who want to completely deny His existence so that they do not have to be held accountable for their lifestyle choices and for a sense of complete independence.  There are others who acknowledge God but ignore Him most of the time with a simple, “He does His thing and I do mine. We leave each other alone.” Finally, there is a third group of people who claim the name, ‘Christian.’

I write from experience when I say that Christians are clever in their hide-and-seek tactics. We adamantly state that we have a relationship with God and that we know Him very well – so well, in fact, that we know He enjoys the game every once in a while. We verbally stand up for our faith when we are with each other but when our comfort threatens to be compromised our hands go over our eyes and we deceive ourselves into thinking that He doesn’t see what we’re doing – holding on to offense, nurturing bitterness in our hearts, choosing football over Christian fellowship or sleep over reading the Bible, gossiping about a friend, laughing about foul language on TV, walking by the hurting stranger, mocking someone who is struggling, forming cliques rather than separating them, and the list goes on.

This is written with an open hand and not a finger pointed in judgement because I count myself in the winning ranks of hide-and-seek players. My eyes have been opened to my skill in the game. When I counsel others on how to deepen their relationship with Jesus Christ I am forced to ask myself, “And what about you?” Make no mistake about it – Christians need a Savior too. The difference between us and those who deny God’s interest in their lives is that we have claimed the Name. Do our actions match our claim?