Psalm 17:8 Keep me as the apple of thy eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings.
Isn’t it wonderful that some childhood games go on forever? Those that are carried on from generation to generation that are never outdated that remains timeless.
How long has it been since you played hide and seek? I’ll have to admit it had been many, many years until recently. We have our first grandchild, a 21 month old little boy named Caleb, who has discovered that this is his favorite game. Getting to play games with this little man is like eating manna from heaven! To say we are silly, crazy, and over the top grandparents would be a mild expression of how we act when he is in our presence. We play anything he wants to play-football, basketball, soccer, pillow bomb, hula hoop, this little piggy, one potato two potato, we blow bubbles, we squirt the water hose, and the list goes on, and on.
Nevertheless out of all these games playing hide and seek is his number one. His favorite place to hide is a double closet in his papaw’s office that stores all his toys. On many occasions when he comes for a visit the first thing he will do is empty out all the toys, climb in the closet, shuts the door, and hollows Papawwwwww!!! When papaw finds him you can hear squeals, and giggles to the high heavens! What beautiful music to my ears hearing the joy that springs forth from his little lips! It’s not enough that papaw just finds him. Caleb’s next request is “Papaw sit down!” So what does this 63 year old papaw do, but climb in the bottom of that closet and snug up as close as he can to relish on this precious moment in time.
This is Caleb’s and Papaw’s secret place. A place of joy, delight, and intimacy that only stolen, and hidden moments of time together will bring. What bond, trust, and security are experienced in that little hiding place between grandfather and grandson.
Caleb should know by now that “He is the apple of his papaw’s eye” and there is nothing within his power, if it would be good for him that he would not try to do. Caleb delights in papaw, and papaw tries his best to give him the desires of his heart.
Matthew 7:11 If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give good things to them that ask.
The Lord God of the universe is my Father, and he delights in me, and he longs to hear me call his name. He has many wonderful deep and secret things to reveal to me just for the asking!
Deut. 29: 29 The secret things belong to the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever.
Psalm 91:1 says this “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty. There’s and old song that says “O rock of ages hide thou me.” He says in his word if we will seek we will find! If we shall knock it shall be open to us. The Father loves us with an everlasting love, we cannot fathom that kind of love, and we can only get a glimpse of that kind of love when we look into the faces of our children and grandchildren.
The further I go on this journey called life the more I realize that it is so important to find a secret place where I can go and hide with my Heavenly Father. Oh how I need to find that closet and ask him to come sit with me a while.
A couple of weeks ago I was very burdened about something. I had prayed about it for a couple of days, but one day the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and said go to a private place and bring this to me, so I went to my laundry room and shut the door and went to my secret place and sought God with this petition. I did this because I was reminded what Matthew 6:6 says-“But thou when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou has shut thy door pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. I wish I could say that I literally go to a closet a lot and pray to my Father, but the business of life hinders my quality of life so often. I knew in my heart that the Father cares about the smallest to the greatest needs. What a blessing was received to me when that very next day that prayer was answered openly. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!!! God gave me the desires of my very heart and he did it swiftly. So often our prayers are not answered as we think they need to be, but isn’t wonderful when God’s heartbeat answers to the beat of ours. He cares, He cares, He cares!!
Psalm 32:7 Thou art my hiding place thou shalt preserve me from trouble thou shall compass me about with songs of deliverance.
Did you know God rejoiceth over you with singing? Every day that we keep our grandson, and we drive him home we sing songs to him all the way home. When we finish one song usually he says “more, more!” What joy it is for us to sing more songs over that little boy. More, more of Jesus I would know, more of his love who died for me.
We as people tend to hide from a lot of things, trying to escape pain and loss, what better place to hide but in the loving and sheltered arms of God.
My prayer is that we realize “Thou art my hiding place oh God” and that I might seek ye early………
Diane Mann
Lean into Jesus Ministries
#dianemannblogs
