Hide and seek may seem like a game children play, but while some play more than others we all do it. Adults get locked in a struggle of hide and seek with our own stuff. Keys, wallets, that pen or that letter all seem to walk without legs, to hide without thinking about it. So off we go and try to find it. I do not write this as another time management lesson or a call for the organization of life. I write it though as an announcement that this so-called child’s game is also God’s game.
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. (I Peter 1:10-12 – ESV)
What was hidden and what was found? Christ was. He was going to be coming into the world. The prophets were given this. Those revered writers of the scriptures saw from a distance the Messiah. Those esteemed ancestors and men who walked with God caught but glimpses of things to come. Shapes and blurry peeks were all their careful searchings and inquiries provided them. Glances were all that was allowed them. God would reveal no more…at that time.
The twelfth verse of this chapter pulled back the covers on one layer of their mystery. They were announcers and messengers, but they were telling things for the future. The things they spoke of and the things they longed to know more about were not going to be revealed to them. They were loved by God and were blessed to have his words pass through their minds and hearts and hands. The blessing of foretelling was theirs. The blessing of the knowing was for later.
What about us? What can we do with this? First, like Peter rejoice in the possession of these greatly desired details. Christ is alive and through that resurrection has brought to us new life and that living hope. From this birth comes a great rescuing from the ways of our old lives. The negatives, the drearies, the hand-wringings and hateds can be pulled off of our souls. A new mesh of God’s building is placed around our lives and gradually we get the textures of a rebuilt soul. We may have very great questions about why this or that is in our lives. God hides his plans in the souls of his children. When we are ready for the finding God will do the revealing. We can be at a verse 10 place in our life seeing dimly or we may be at a verse 12 part in our life experiencing greatly. We must never forget that whether we are fretting verse 10 or living verse 12 that God has his good intentions for both times and both places.
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