Hide and Seek . . . you're it!

Just like a child, got to set your heart to believing.

(I’ll Hold Out My Hand - Chip Taylor/Al Gorgoni)

One of the many blessings I had as a child was - a childhood. I was allowed to play. I spent hours staging battles between soldiers from so many different historical time zones that I’m sure Rod Serling would have been impressed with my imagination. Maybe it was Mr. Serling’s impression on me that made it perfectly plausible for the space guys assigned to the guided missile launchers to be on guard for an attack from a Sioux war party, while Norse vikings raided Russian Cossacks hiding in the hayloft of the metal barn of my farm set, with WW II Japanese infantrymen hiding in the cornfield - trying to make sense of it all. Imagination was clearly not a “batteries required” activity.

Getting enough kids together for a good kickball, baseball, football game or any other fun activity afforded us the opportunity to practice skills in organizing, negotiating, problem solving - even dealing with bullies. We had no idea we were being groomed for later success in life out in the “real world.” We just wanted to play and have fun. Any game was more fun with more kids. Any kid who rode or walked by would hear “Hey kid, you wanna play?”

When it was too dark for baseball it was the perfect time for hide and seek. That often had to be negotiated with urgent, impassioned pleas to our parents to let us stay out “just a little longer . . . P L E A S E!!!”

Jesus says that we need to become as little children to enter his kingdom (Matthew 18:3). This is not a call to be childish, but to become childlike. The trust and wonder of childhood, that too often fades into the “grown up” cynicism and weariness of adulthood, is restored as we enter the kingdom of God; coming before our Father as his beloved children. And the joy of hide and seek is not over!

And you will seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart.

(Jeremiah 29:13 NAS)