The craving to be seen is universal: We were made to be known. But there is only one who can do this. He is the one who created us to live with moments and hours that no one else can understand.
And that’s where the mysterious beauty of hiddenness comes in. We who live most of our days in and around the people of this world, don’t naturally hide ourselves in God. We don’t naturally look to his expression toward us to drive us. We respond instead to the looks and applause and the direction of others around us. Thus, he hides us—and masterfully.
God sometimes hides us in obscure circumstances. He takes us out of an upfront role so we can discover the beauty of falling in love with him when no one else is looking on or applauding. We sit behind a desk, toiling at a job no one appreciates. We push a stroller, change diapers, and rock crying babies to sleep. We attend a church whose mission isn’t quite the perfect fit with who we are and how we’re gifted, and we serve, quietly and unacknowledged, in the background.
Sometimes God hides us in hardship or suffering. Other times, God hides us in plain sight, right in the midst of a life that keeps going full tilt, so we learn how to find him while still pursuing a career or leading a ministry or running a household.
Yes, all of us experience being hidden—hidden on purpose. Perhaps hidden for now simply because God enjoys how we give our all to him—our inner-thoughts, our prayers, our focused devotion—in private. God designed us so that we would hide in him, not perform for him.
Sara Hagerty is the author of the forthcoming book Unseen: The Gift of Being Hidden in a World That Loves to Be Noticed as well as Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet. Learn more at SaraHagerty.net, on Twitter at @SaraHagerty, and Instragram at @SaraHagertyWrites. Adapted from Unseen by Sara Hagerty. Copyright © 2017 by Sara Hagerty. Used by permission of Zondervan. www.zondervan.com. All rights reserved.
