I’ve Got You Covered

taken from II Corinthians 4:8,9

Do you remember playing hide and seek when you were a child? Or maybe you play it with your children?

When I was a kid, I have vivid memories of playing hide and seek while at church.  Yes, at church!

I grew up as preacher’s kid…P.K. as some would call it and when you grow up as a preacher’s kid, you spend countless hours at the church building waiting on your parents who are typically in meetings with other parents. As we got bored as kids, we would find something to do in our boredom that would not get us in too much trouble.  Often, the game of hide and seek became the game of choice.  Like the typical game of hide and seek, someone would count while the others would hide.  I hated being the “seeker”, the one who counted because I was much better at hiding.  I had plenty of practice, so I knew all the best hiding places.  But there was one particular church that my dad pastored that had an amazing place to hide. It was a hidden storage space located behind the choir loft. There was a set of stairs in behind the auditorium that most people did not know where they led. But I did! They led to a secret attic with one of the best places to hide and some other creepy things that the church felt they needed to keep.

One, two, three…the “seeker” would start counting and off the rest of us would go.  We would scatter fast. I would pretend that I was heading a certain direction, but once the coast was clear I would take off to the secret hiding place…behind the choir loft.

Interestingly, in this attic of sort, there were these huge screens designed to hold the organ speakers. I had learned to wiggle my way around the storage boxes to look out through these screens that overlooked the auditorium. In the game of “hide and seek”, this gave me a great advantage because I could watch the “seeker” scrambling to find those who were hiding.  I would watch them catch the obvious ones that had no creativity. They would roll out from under a pew shocked that they had been found so quickly.   Amateurs! I would watch the other “hiders” get caught one by one.  But not me!

As time would tick by, I watched the other “hiders” join forces with the “seeker” in hopes to find me.  But they couldn’t succeed because I had the secret place.  Overtime, they would just give up which left me stuck in the attic behind the choir loft.  Eventually everyone would head home (I know because I could see them in the auditorium behind the speaker screen) leaving me in the attic.  Once I heard my parents call my name, I would scramble down until the next game of hide and seek.

We still play this game as adults. One, two, three, four…and the hunt begins. Those who seek to find us come in many shapes and sizes.  We are often hunted down not as a playful childhood game, but we are hunted down because of their distaste for us. It could be a total stranger responding to a heartfelt post on Facebook or someone who sits at our dinner table.  The words or look of disregard push us to our hiding place.  No matter the reason for “the hunt”, with every word, every look, every shoulder shrug, we crawl deeper and deeper into our corner of safety.  As the hunting begins, they join forces with others to hunt us down, but we are so hidden that they will not reach us.  Finally, they just give up.

But even though they have given up, we continue to sit in our dark place of hiding. We sit with our knees drawn toward our chest trying to make ourselves as small as possible. As their words or their looks trickle into our heart, we feel smaller and smaller. What if their words were right?

 Questions of the events that preceded this darkness bombard us.

                What happened?

                                Did they really mean what they said?

                                                What did I do to deserve this?

The despair overwhelms us.  We feel hopeless and alone.

Sitting in this darkness of “the hunted,” tears of hopelessness and hidden stroll down our cheeks. 

Am I alone in this “hunt”?

Will I ever be able to escape from this hiding place?

Where do I go from here?

The fear of stepping out from our place of safety overwhelms us.  What if they are waiting quietly on the other side of the door in hopes that I will give up and surrender to their harsh words?

As we sit in the quiet of the dark, we can hear faint sounds of footsteps in the distance.  Our heart begins to race fearing they have returned to finish their hunt. We curl up tighter and somehow can sink further into the darkness.  The door creaks and our blood pressure rises. There is a small light shining through the crack in the door. The comfort of the darkness begins to escape as the light gets brighter and the door slowly opens. Then darkness returns. We are once again comforted as the door is once again closed. In our emotional exhaustion, we slowly move from a sitting position to a position of sleep as we lay our head on the hard wood floor.  In our exhaustion, we fall asleep searching for peace.

Slowly, our eyes begin to force themselves open.  As our eyes open, our heart immediately returns to it’s angst as we are reminded why we were asleep on a hard, dark floor. We lay there with our heavy aching heart.  If we close our eyes, maybe we can find the peace in our sleep once again. But our heart finds an unrelenting ache.

                “I have been pressed and pushed from every side…

                                “I have been faced with uncertainty about what to say, think, or do…

                                                “I have been knocked down…

                                                                “I have been hunted…”

The reality sinks in. Our heart is in utter despair!

As our eyes are opening to our reality, we notice that we have been covered.  There is a blanket covering our body. Somewhere in our sleep of despair, someone placed a warm blanket on us to protect us from the coldness of our hiding place.  We raise our weakened body from our position of despair and notice a piece of paper placed strategically by our side.  Our eyes begin to focus on the writing. Once the blur has faded, we read…

                “You have been pressed and pushed from every side…but you are not crushed.

“You have been faced with uncertainty about what to say, think, or do…but you are not driven to despair.

                “You have been knocked down…but you are not destroyed.

                                “You have been hunted…but NEVER ABANDONED!”

“As you slept in your despair…I covered you.

I covered you with a hope that only I can give.

I covered you with a strength that can only I can give.

I covered you with healing for you soul that can only I can give.

I covered you for your comfort, but I also covered you for My purpose.

I COVERED YOU!

“I have been here through every harsh word, every hunt, every shoulder shrug, every eye roll, every whisper of disregard…I have never left you.

“Now wrap this blanket around you as you rise from this position. As you step out from the darkness, keep this blanket around you as you walk.  With each step, feel the hope that I have given you; feel the strength that comes from Me; embrace the healing for your soul; cocoon yourself in My comfort and seek the purpose I have created you for!

“You have been hunted down…but NEVER ABANDONED!”

                                                                                                                                -GOD