He is My Hiding Place
Posted on 03.13.2012
When Adam and Eve were in the garden, they came to an unsettling realization after they partook of the forbidden fruit: They were naked. Exposed. Put on Blast.
So they hid.
Their hiding was actually quite hilarious! They remind me of three and four-year olds. They thought they could actually hide from the ALL-SEEING, all-knowing, all-and-everywhere-present GOD. They didn’t have a clue that the God who created them would know every little thing about them and what they would do or where they would go in every situation. Again, it is like a four-year old who eats the cookie and lies about it to her mom while huge crumbs are teetering in the corners of her mouth.
Hiding is a normal human response to human emotions like shame or guilt. We hide when we are ashamed of how we look or when we have done something wrong. We hide when we are embarrassed. We hide when we are depressed. We hide when we are tired and do not have the energy to be around others so as to shield them from our unseemly tired behavior. We hide for lots of reasons.
However, there is a different kind of hiding that I must admit that I am involved in. As I have come to know Jesus, more and more, day by day, I have found Him to be my Hiding Place. This is because His love for me is so wide that it embraces the range of my emotions and attitudes toward whatever I am facing on a daily basis. That means if I get angry, I can go to Him and let Him know about it. If I am hurt, I can enter into Hiding for that situation and know that He understands why I am feeling pain. I can talk to Him about it and he deals with me. If I am wrong, He will let me know, oh so gently.
By the time I leave my Hiding Place, I am at peace and glad to give grace or apologize or do whatever to rectify the situation if necessary. If I just feel ugly inside and out, I go My Hiding Place and hide and fuss in frustration, because I have an ear that will never tire of me. I am exposed, put on blast and am as naked as a jaybird in my Hiding Place. No one is teasing me there. He loves me and He is going to let me know the truth: He straightens me out and I leave renewed and refreshed. What I love about My Hiding Place is that He is real and gets right down in the mud, muck and mire with me and works it out.
We don’t need to hide from God anymore, as did Adam and Eve. When we are redeemed, He is faithful and true to us. His love is long enough to span the full length of our days in this life (and through eternity) and it is deep enough to go to the depths of a “hell on earth” facing challenges as we all do. He keeps us as “the apple of His eye,” and hides us in the shadow of His wings (Psalm 143:9).
He is My Hiding Place. I do not have to harness fear, shame or guilt because He forgives all of my weaknesses and shortcomings. His sacrificial and unconditional love demonstrated by His death on the cross has defeated my sin and human ugliness once and for all! To Him, I gladly confess them all!
So, when you know God for yourself, you are in hiding, yet you are known and exposed fully to Him! When I surrendered my life to Jesus, my life became hidden in Christ (Colossians 3:3). Lord, “You are my Hiding Place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance” (Psalm 32:7).
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