All five of my kiddos are different. I know, I know… you all know that. Just let me explain this out. One of my kiddos will cry if I speak too harshly, another will try cracking jokes during a stern talking-to (he’s working on his comedic timing), another will argue her point, the youngest goes into manic laughing so we don’t get onto her for whining, and the oldest used to say I don’t know as a response to every inquiry (she’s a married woman now). All different responses. One method does not work for all of them. And there’s no manual, so a lot of it is trial and error – and a lot of prayer.
Knowing my kiddos makes things easier. If one of them is having a tough day, sometimes all it takes is a longer-than-normal hug. Another might just need some one-on-one time to remember that she is seen, heard, and loved. The need for these different approaches isn’t hard to see. Spend a day or two with my family and you’ll see each individual show through in how they relate with others, how they carry a conversation (sometimes one-sided), and sometimes simply by how they enter a room.
When it comes to God, I bet you’ve heard that He’s a mystery. You can never tell with God – His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9) – see, it’s scriptural! And don’t get me started on trying to decipher the mysterious will of God. Okay, I already started it. The will of God is that all of mankind comes to repentance (I Timothy 2:4). That’s not so mysterious – it’s His desire that all of mankind accepts Jesus’ sacrifice and spends eternity with Him.
The sad reality is that not everyone will accept Him. Some won’t accept Him because they have heard – and believed – what I can only describe as slanderous statements about God. One of those is that we can never really know Him – He’s a mystery.
Isaiah 55:8-9 is a passage that so many stand on to prove that we cannot possibly know who God is. On one hand, it’s true. God is absolutely perfect and holy, and even after accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we have sinful tendencies. We don’t always think holy. We don’t think according to the standard of perfection. We can get sidetracked from reading our Bible, spending time in worship, we put too much thought into what others think of us, we often have a screen in front of our face for entertainment instead of putting God first, and we are a people that do not always handle stress well.
Don’t believe me? Maybe you’ve never found an ease to the tension with drugs or a simple glass of wine after a stressful day (with a nice hot bath), but what about food? What about shopping? What about working out? All of those can be a place of refuge that we allow to take the place of our Refuge (Psalm 91). But why on earth would we run to Him if we don’t know Him and have been told that He’s a mystery? It is in the Bible after all.
It gives us the impression that He wants to remain hidden from us. Seems a bit cruel that we’re then told to ask Him for things, seek Him out, and knock for doors to be opened (Matthew 7:7-8). Why ask if we don’t know Him? If we don’t know Him, it’s impossible to trust Him.
As a parent to the gazillion kiddos described earlier, I don’t put on a front for them. They know me – sometimes too well. They read my mood, they read my tone, and they read my face. Oh yes, they read my face.
About 9 years ago (when I was severely unhealthy spiritually and emotionally), my husband and I had gotten into it, and I was still steaming. But we were sitting down to eat dinner, so I chose the ever-productive silent treatment. After the prayer was said, I was dishing up the food and one of our daughters (3 or 4 at the time) asked if I was mad. I told her I wasn’t – my anger had nothing to do with her and she wouldn’t understand it anyway. She looked at me a moment longer and then asked, Then what’s wrong with your face?
As much as I hated that she called me out – and it broke the tension with a lot of laughter around the table – I’m so glad my kiddos know me. They know what to expect from me, they know what I expect from them and – for the most part – why I expect it. Because they know me, they are able to trust that I love them. They don’t wonder if I’m going to make sure they have food when they’re hungry, clothes and shoes that fit, and safety from the elements.
After all of that, I want to make a distinction that many of us have probably encountered if you’ve spent any time with God. I don’t hide things from my kiddos. But I do hide things for my kiddos.
There are things that I have not shared with my kiddos because they are not at a mature enough age to understand. The weight of some experiences I’ve had are much too heavy for them when they are still in the single digits. It would not benefit them to hear the turmoil I still wrestle with because I was date raped at 17. They don’t even know what that is! It would not benefit them to hear the ins and outs of my battle with addiction (chains were broken almost 6 years ago).
But I’m not going to hide things from my kiddos that can help them grow. And God is not hiding things from you either.
Maybe you’ve asked (Matthew 7:7-8), and you’re following the very scriptural advice of waiting on God (Psalm 27:14, Psalm 130:5). We often hear that and it’s kind of like all those young adults who say they’re waiting to do anything with their life because they want to know what God’s will is first. I might have just rolled my eyes. I get it. Sounds pretty religious.
But waiting on God is active. The Hebrew word qavah is the word that’s translated into wait for (Strong’s H6960). While it means to wait, to hope and to expect… it also means to look for. After we ask, are we seeking? Are we getting to know God? Do we only ask for what we think we want or are we asking for and seeking what He wants for us? Remember, His ways and thoughts are pure and perfect while ours aren’t quite there.
God isn’t hiding His thoughts and ways from us, but we do need to seek Him in order to understand what He’s hiding for us. Let’s get active in our waiting. Spend time reading the Bible or a solid devotional while taking that nice, hot bath. Jam out to praise and worship while you’re cooking, pray and meditate on scripture while you’re cleaning, and focus on what God thinks of you while shopping for the latest fashions or spending time at the gym.
I promise that He’s not hiding from you. It’s not His will or in His nature to hide from you. Ask. But don’t forget to seek while you’re waiting for the right door to knock on.