Lessons from the Heart
Adults playing kids' games
By Pastor Pam Ditson-McCall

McCall

While in a restaurant recently, a grandmother and small child played peek-a-boo. It is amazing how a child covers their eyes and is sure they have just disappeared, after all, they can't see you, and so you must be unable to see them. Yet, how many of you have tried this game of peek-a-boo or hide-n-seek from God. You can't see God, so how can God see you!

Society today gives us plenty of ways to attempt hiding from God. We can hide in drugs or alcohol, sex or gambling…the most common and somehow most "acceptable" is a schedule so full that, well there simply isn't room for God.

Then there are those who hide because they are angry for reasons they can no longer recall. Others have feelings of unworthiness and a great many hide because of a secret they fear will be found out. We hide when believing that the smoke and mirror magic trick is working and no one will see the mess that lies beneath the façade. There are a million reasons why we hide, but everyone - EVERYONE wants to be found.

"Where can I flee (hide) from your presence? If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea…even there your hand shall lead me." Ps. 139

Saint Augustine said that our hearts are restless until we find our rest in God, and well, he should know spending a great deal of his life hiding from God. Augustine found out it doesn't work! So many today are searching for proof! Back to that theory of if we can't see God, God can't see us. We expect (or wish) God would flash a neon sign, "Here I am!"

I share with you a recent appearance of God in my life. It begins with the gift of a gold charm bracelet with one small, beautiful cross presented to me on the first year anniversary here in Flora seven years ago by my congregation. Over the years I have placed other crosses on that bracelet, mostly gifts from friends and loved ones. Everytime in the last seven years that I have preached, preformed a wedding or funeral I have had that bracelet on. It became a reminder of the joy my call to ministry has been. Last November I helped with our annual chicken noodle dinner. I removed my jewelry so that I could wash dishes etc. and placed them in my pocket. When I got home I took the jewelry out of my pocket and placed them on the kitchen table. The next day I picked my watch up and put it on and thought, "I better put that bracelet away so it won't get lost." The next time I dressed for worship I reached in my jewelry box and there was no bracelet. I searched for weeks to no avail. All I could image was that the bracelet was thrown away somehow and my heart ached. I was so distraught and ashamed. How could I be so irresponsible? I told no one!

In January I was asked to officiate at a close friend's sister's funeral. For some reason, I was more anxious and unsure in preparation of the service than I had been in many years.

The night before I went to bed, still not comfortable about the way the service was coming together. That night I could not sleep. I tossed and turned with one thing running through my mind, the bracelet. For weeks, I had pushed it to the back of my mind, too painful to think about. Finally, very early I rose and made my way to the kitchen. For almost my whole adult life every morning I make coffee, but for some odd reason, I decided to make a cup of tea. I placed the teakettle on the stove and reached for a cup…but wait, my daughter gave me this beautiful little teapot and cup for Mother's Day and I had never used it. After retrieving the teapot, I took off the lid and there was my bracelet. I burst into tears! How did it get in here? Who cared, there it was… that, my dear friends, was an assurance of God's presence. It wasn't a coincidence. It wasn't luck. It was God's reassurance of His ever presence, that everything was going to be alright…and it was! What was lost was found! No more reason to hide the truth of my own imperfections and uncertainties…God is, was and will always be with us! Hallelujah!

Pam Ditson-McCall is pastor at the Flora First Christian Church.