“Hiding in Plain Sight”

God knows that “familiarity,” until we understand what that is, is a very damaging thing to most relationships. Being “familiar” with someone or something, in the negative sense, means to take it for granted. Negative familiarity makes us devalue people and things, wherein we lose what is special about them and often misuse or neglect them. Every important relationship must be safeguarded against it. Familiarity, in this sense, leads to broken relationships, hardness of heart, and in the case of marriage, often to divorce.

God is fully aware of this, and He guards Himself from allowing us to become “familiar” with Him. He does this by often “hiding from us” so that when He does engage us, it becomes very, very special to us. When God shows up, it is “as good as it gets,” and He wants to keep it that way until we are safe in His regular presence. Diligence and real hunger for God makes it safe to be with Him. One significant meaning of the following scripture tells us, “And without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6, NIV). Some fuller translations such as NKJV end Hebrews 11:6 with“…those who diligently seek Him.” God never wants to cheapen His presence due to our immaturity.

This being true, He also “hides Himself” in His Scriptures. As Christians, all of us have had the experience of reading Bible verses many times before they jump out at us and go “3-D”; their deeper meaning and depth make us stop in our tracks and worship. We usually say, “Why didn’t I see this before?” You weren’t ready to see it until it was “safe” for you to see it. God protects us from seeing and hearing things that we aren’t ready to deal with and that might make us discouraged or “familiar” when we can’t yet walk them out.

For me, one of the classic examples of God hiding huge truth in single words or phrases is found in this verse in Genesis:

Two sons were born to Eber: One was named Peleg, because in his time the earth was divided; his brother was named Joktan. —Genesis 10:25, NIV

After reading it for years and missing the obvious truth, I finally “saw” this verse for the first time. Do you see what it is saying? The very face of the Earth is being changed as the continents are being divided! The biggest geological event in human history is happening and God gently slips it by us and waits to see who has eyes to find it! This is the nature of the God who loves us enough to hide until we’re ready to see. And that, my friends, is…

THE BOTTOM LINE.

---