God loves us so much. Beyond what is of human comprehension. Yet often we find he is absent, hiding, not the be seen or felt in some of the worst parts of life. Amongst our challenges.
There are some great thinkers who state He isn’t with us because we are in the middle of a test. What does the teacher do when we take our tests? He is silent, and observes, and once the test is over, he spends time with us going through what we did well and where we might have got through things a little better. Some say, it’s through the test and the trials that we learn the most about God, our world and others and ourselves.
But God isn’t a deity that stands aloof. He isn’t a God who hides. Think back to the garden of Eden. Did God hide from man? Or was it man that hid from God?
He isn’t a deity that creates and let’s go. Again, Genesis reminds us how God would walk in the cool of the day in the garden with man. God enjoyed their time together and interaction, and any great friend would.
And once Eve and Adam ate from the apple, the tree of knowledge of good and evil; God cried out, not in curses but in heartbreak. The future he had planned for man before the fall now couldn’t exist. Evil had gotten into man’s heart.
God is God-with-us as Herni Nouwen states. Emanuel is God-with-us. He became the helpless babe, because he wanted to be with us. Close to us. One of us! And after the resurrection, he sent his spirit to be with us, be with us; a power even closer than our own breath.
God is God-with-us. He wants to be with us. Part of our lives and our decisions. When we feel His absence, it’s not him doing the hiding but us! When we lie deep in our pain, crying out, does a father really walk past it’s hurting child and ignore her? Or does He sit down and console her, tend to her wounds and share hurt with her?
God doesn’t hide. It us that does the hiding. Often without realising. In our hearts we carry so much guilt and shame. Whatever has happened in this world, we can never live up to the ideal that we feel we ought to. Often we are our own worst critics, and, let’s face it, if a friend spoke to you as your do to yourself; well they wouldn’t be your friend for very long. Yet you deem it acceptable to rile and curse yourself. And here enter guilt and shame with all their other friends. Before you know it your hiding these parts from others, from yourself and them eventually from God. This hiding becomes a pattern throughout life. And we wander, further and further away..
If God wanted to hide form us, he could so easily! Instead he is out searching the streets for you. He is the father waiting for the prodigal to return! We are his most treasured child. You are his most treasured child!! The challenge for us is to believe this!
God wants to be with us, through our trials and our tribulations, our challenge is getting out of the way and letting him in!
So the next time your in the depths feeling anxious, frustrated, alone, like your God has deserted you, perhaps look around; really look around, and open your eyes and see where it is you are hiding!
“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, «Where are you?»
GENESIS 3:8, 9 (NIV)
Words and images: Lisa VO
