Why we struggle to find a God who refuses to hide.
There is a simple, somewhat humorous truth about the nature of God that we often overlook: God is terrible at hide and seek.
In the childhood game, the goal is to conceal yourself, to become small, to blend in, and to stay silent until the seeker gives up. But God does the opposite. He refuses to hide. He fills all of creation with His handiwork; He speaks through history, scripture, and conscience. He is not crouching behind a bush hoping to go unnoticed; He is standing in plain sight, waiting to be seen.
The problem with this game of spiritual hide and seek isn’t the Hider. The problem is us—the seekers. We are bad at hide and seek not because the target is elusive, but because we often choose not to seek.
The Myth of the Hidden God We often complain that God is hard to find. We speak of "divine silence" or the "hiddenness of God" as if He is deliberately keeping us at arm's length. But the Bible suggests that if we aren’t finding Him, the issue lies in our method of searching, not His location.
"You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart."
— Jeremiah 29:13 (NASB)
The condition for finding God isn't solving a puzzle; it is wholeheartedness. If God refuses to hide, then our inability to see Him usually stems from the fact that we are distracted. We are like a seeker standing in the middle of a room with our hands over our eyes, complaining that the room is empty.
Consider the prophet Elisha. When his servant was terrified by an enemy army surrounding them, Elisha didn't ask God to send a new army to save them. He simply asked God to reveal what was already there.
"Then Elisha prayed and said, 'O Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.' And the Lord opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha."
— 2 Kings 6:17 (NASB)
God was there the whole time. The protection was real. The only variable was whether the servant’s eyes were open or closed.
The Comfort of the Dream So why do we keep our eyes closed? Why do we live as if the spiritual world—the "real" reality—doesn't exist?
The truth is, we are spiritually asleep. We are like patients coming out of anesthesia—groggy, comfortable, and resistant to the harsh light of the operating room. As a friend once told me after surgery: "The key to waking up is opening your eyes."
It sounds simple, but it is profound. We stay asleep because the physical world feels solid, permanent, and safe. It is a vivid dream that demands our attention with bills, entertainment, and immediate desires. But scripture warns us that this physical world is actually the temporary vapor, and the invisible spiritual world is the concrete reality.
"while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."
— 2 Corinthians 4:18 (NASB)
When we choose to focus only on what we can see physically, we are choosing to live in the dream. And that dream can be dangerous.
The House is on Fire There is a terrifying downside to hitting the spiritual snooze button. We often mistake comfort for safety. We feel the warmth of our surroundings—our routine, our possessions, our lack of conflict—and we think everything is fine. We pull the covers up tighter, content to stay asleep.
But sometimes, the bed is warm only because the house is on fire.
We are drifting in a burning building, soothed by the heat of our own destruction. We are spiritually unaware that our eternity hangs in the balance while we obsess over temporary things. God isn't hiding; He is the one sounding the alarm. He is the one shouting for us to wake up before the temporary collapses and we are left unprepared for the eternal.
"Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed."
— Romans 13:11 (NASB)
Waking Up We cannot hide from God. As Hebrews 4:13 (NASB) reminds us, "there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him." He knows exactly where we are. The game is rigged in our favor, yet we continue to lose because we refuse to open our eyes.
It is time to stop playing games. The reality we cling to is passing away. The "real" reality is here, right in front of us, impossible to miss if we would just look. We need to wake up from the dream before the house burns down around us.
Open your eyes. He is right there.
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