Hiding with Christ

Hide and seek and manhunt were probably my two favorite childhood games. Being the skinny, small child I was, finding places to hide wasn't difficult. Under sinks, behind doors, underneath cars, between bushes, flat against walls (if it was dark enough), in tall trees, etc. You name a small, barely-any-oxygen-to-breathe spots, and I've probably hidden in it.

However, there was always a major flaw in my hiding strategies. Maybe it had to do with all the adrenaline that was pumping, or the fact that silence gives you time to actually think about it, but I always had to pee. I couldn't stay in those places more than 2.39 minutes without feeling the terrible urge to, well, you know, lose my liquid weight, so to speak.

Then the inevitable, and strangely classic "TIME OUT - I GOTTA PEE!" was called, and my secret location was usually divulged to whoever was within earshot. I would have to find a whole new spot after the break.

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3)

It's a tale of tradition that Reverend Augustus Toplady, a British preacher in the 1700s, was caught one night in a stormy gale. Seeking shelter, he tucked himself away in the gap of a gorge, where he was inspired to pen the following words, whose eloquence I cannot match:

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee

The picture given here is of a God who was carved open that you might rest in Him, protected from the destruction of storm that looms over us. He does not provide the shelter, He is the shelter.

Though the storm may get us wet and sick, God does not fail. He is the ultimate Keeper of that which belongs to Him. Once you are Christ's, you need not worry that the forces of this world will rip you away from His hand, no matter how the winds howl and the storm crashes.

God knows our weakness. Psalms 103 says that He "knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust." Because He knows our susceptibility to sin, the enemy, and suffering, He will guard our hearts until the day when we are lifted up with Christ; when we "appear with Him in glory."

Until then, I await here. Resting hidden in the Rock of Ages.

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