You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13 (ESV)
The other day my husband and I were playing Hide and Seek with my grandson. He's a toddler so one of us would go with him to hide and the other would seek. It was my turn to count and then find him and my husband.
As I was standing in the family room, I saw my husband take him into the front closet. I dutifully counted "1, 2, 3, 4, 5" and went to find them. I knew where they were so I wasn't really looking. All the while, I am talking out loud saying "I wonder where they are? I have to keep looking!" As my hand reached for the closet door, my grandson yelled from the stair landing "I right here!" (Apparently, my husband saw me spy their hiding place and moved.)
He couldn't help himself! He wanted to be found by me. He wanted to be together, to play some more and to share the moment.
Who else does this remind you of? God does the same thing. He says that if we seek him we will find him. There is no game here. He wants to be found! He wants to spend time together, to share moments, talk and play. As a matter of fact, he goes out of his way to get us to see who he is. The problem comes when we think we know where to find him so we stop looking.
Just like I thought I knew where to find my grandson, I didn't really search. I went to where I thought he was; expecting him to be there. But he moved! Do we do that with God? Do we go to the same place every time because we think he's there? Do we even notice when he's not?
The depth of our relationship with him has a lot to do with our response to his call. Are you seeking God? Really seeking him? Or are you going through the motions to play a game and missing out? God is jumping up and down and yelling "I'm right here!" but we miss it because we thought we had him figured out. But, just like my husband and my grandson, he is full of surprises making it well worth the search!