Psalm 139:7
Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence?

Recently Wendy and I were locked in a pretty intense game of hide and seek with the boys and Sydney. It was one of those games where Wendy and I hid a little too well and they children took a LOOOONNNGGGGG time to find us. Long enough for us to catch a quick nap, balance the checkbook and fix our nails up real nice (What? You thought that was me??). Anyway, at some point they finally found Wendy and I assumed that they would soon find me. But no. They kind of wandered off and went back to what they were doing and left me hidden. That alone would make a great spiritual application about how we look - or don't look - for God, but there's a better observation than that.

A few moments after they had gone back to playing, Wendy (I'm sure out of sympathy for me!) went to them and told them they needed to find me. Soon after, the hunt was back on and they were scurrying through the house whispering to each other about who was going to check in which room and then giving each other the report about what happened when they went in that room. After some unsuccessful attempts, they apparently all got the idea that I might be in my bedroom. As they made their way into the room, I heard Parker say, "Come out, Daddy! We know you're in here!" "Yeah," echoed Will. "We know you're in here!"

I'll give them this: they were confident even if they were wrong. I was not in that room but was down the hall firmly planted on the top bunk in the boys' room (which explains the nap part above!). I thought about how dogmatic I can get about God - thinking I've got Him all figured out. And as I chuckled about that, I heard Sydney - trying to be like her big brothers - yell out, "Yeah! We know you're somewhere!"

That statement, that beautiful, simple statement by a 3 year-old looking for her Daddy, is how I want to live. We get so caught up in trying to figure out the specifics about God that we very often forget the more important and obvious general truth: He is always near us - even if we don't know quite where He is.

Do you live with the full assurance and expectation of God's presence? "I don't know where You are, but I know You're somewhere and that eventually I'll see You!" I want to believe He's with me even when it doesn't seem like it. I want the faith that knows - in the deepest part of who I am - that my Father would never abandon me. After all, He did say seek Me and you will find Me (Matthew 7:7). He may seem hidden at times, but it is the expectation of Him that keeps me looking.

How about you?