Where was your favorite hiding spot as a kid?

My family had a sectional in our living room, and in between the bend in the sectional and the half-wall that separated the living room from the kitchen was the perfect little nook for a five-year-old who needed to hide. I remember clambering over the cushions and diving into that spot any time there was a scary or stressful part in a movie we were watching. I even remember taking my stuffed Barney dinosaur back there one time and whispering some kind of chant that was supposed to bring him to life, Toy Story-style.

(Before you get too concerned, this wasn’t my childhood self dabbling in witchcraft. I saw it in a Barney movie and thought maybe it would happen in real life if I believed hard enough.)

Hiding places are where we go when we want to feel safe. They tend to take different forms as we grow up and realize that crouching behind a couch is no longer going to protect us from the things that scare us.

Your new hiding place might be food, or social media, or sleeping, or your comfort show on Netflix. It might be your husband or your boyfriend or your best friend or your mom. It might be your job, your hobbies, your credit card, your planner, or your airplane tickets. It could be working out or reading romance novels or playing video games or watching pornography. It could even be your church community.

(Most) of our adult hiding places are not inherently bad. Many of them are good gifts from the Lord, intended for our pleasure and enjoyment.

But none of them are meant to be hiding places. None of them are meant to be the places we go when our hearts are overwhelmed and our souls long for safety.

That role belongs to the Lord.

“You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance.” Psalm 32:7

“You are my hiding place and my shield; I wait for Your word.” Psalm 119:114

“Keep me as the apple of the eye; Hide me in the shadow of Your wings.” Psalm 17:8

“For in the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle; In the secret place of His tent He will hide me; He will lift me up on a rock.” Psalm 27:5

What does it mean for God to be our hiding place?

The first time we read about humans hiding is in Genesis, which goes to show just how ingrained this is in our nature. After Adam and Eve took the life-altering bite of that fruit, their first instinct was to hide from God. They knew they’d messed up, and they didn’t want him to see them in the throes of their shame.

So they found a hiding place and they waited with pounding hearts, hoping the God who crafted their bodies from breath and dust wouldn’t think to look behind some trees.

Of course, He finds them. And we know the rest of the story.

As slightly comical as this moment is, it also breaks my heart when I take time to really think about it. The shame of sin is so powerful that it can cause a grown man and woman to revert to a childlike state, desperately seeking shelter from the one who loved them most.

What if, instead of running away from God, they had run to Him?

I don’t know that the consequences would have changed, but how different of a conversation might it have been if Adam and Eve came to God, heads bowed and tears streaming, and told Him what they’d done? What if He hadn’t had to come looking for them at all?

I’ve heard people say that the first sin wasn’t the bite itself – it was the moment Adam and Eve doubted God in their hearts, allowed themselves to believe that He wasn’t trustworthy, that His goodness wasn’t enough, that they would make better gods than He did.

If this is true, then I believe that the third sin happened when they hid behind a piece of God’s creation rather than hiding in the Creator himself.

Our natural inclination when we do something wrong is to hide from the one we’ve wronged. Everything inside of us cringes against saying the word sorry when we’ve hurt someone, because it means owning up to the hard truth that we’re not perfect people. Even when it doesn’t seem like our choices affect anyone but ourselves, we know that all sin is ultimately against God, so he’s often the last person we want to turn to in those moments.

But as much as our sin hurts God’s heart, I think what hurts it even more is when his children run from Him. It shows that we don’t still understand who He is: a wonderful father who reminds us over and over again in Scripture that He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and overflowing with love. (Exodus 34:6-7, Psalm 145:8, Psalm 86:15, Joel 2:13)

I loved you so much that I sent my Son to rescue you, I can hear Him say, a sad smile on His face. What else can I do to make you believe that you are safe with me?

And He doesn’t just want us to come to Him when we’ve messed up. He wants to be the first place we go when we’re sad, angry, hurt, sick, stressed, anxious, depressed, overwhelmed. He knows firsthand how hard it is to be human, and He wants more than anything to walk that journey with us. Even if it means hanging out behind a couch with us for a little while.

He wants to be our hiding place.

One of my absolute favorite songs that captures the sweetness of God’s pursuing love so well is Runaway by Jess Ray. I encourage you to take some time to listen to it and meditate on the lyrics today.

ABOUT OUR BLOGGER

Kati Lynn Davis grew up in Chester County. After a brief stay on the other side of Pennsylvania to earn a writing degree from the University of Pittsburgh, she returned to the area and got a job working for a local library.

When she isn’t writing, Kati enjoys reading, drawing, watching movies (especially animated ones!), drinking bubble tea, hanging out with her family cat, and going for very slow runs. Kati is pretty sure she’s an Enneagram 4 but is constantly having an identity crisis over it, so thankfully she’s learning to root her sense of self in Jesus.

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