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News | Nate Talks. . . Hide and Seek
12 January 2009
Nathan Morgan Locke, Christianity Explored's Youth Evangelist, takes a peek at Colossians 3:3
“…97, 98, 99, 100! Coming, ready or not!”
Oh, the joy of hide and seek. Apparently, during one game someone ended up in the magical land of Narnia. And, according to the International Federation of Hide and Seek, they're still looking for the world number 1. . .
I never really enjoyed hide and seek as a child, since the idea of hiding always seemed to involve being alone. The process of seeking was problematic as I was never very good at it, and there was always the fear that everyone else had run off together to play a different game without me.
However, for Christians there is a great hiding place, one that isn’t lonely and doesn’t make you feel like you're missing out: Hiding in Christ. Paul writes in Colossians chapter 3, verse 3:
“For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”
This verse of the Bible is fascinating because, as with so much of Scripture, it is both incredibly simple and yet utterly mind-boggling. Let’s look at two points.
Dead or alive?
The phrase ‘born-again Christian’ is well known, the phrase ‘previously dead sinner’ less so. But often in his letters Paul talks about the fact that Christians have died to sin for the purpose of encouraging and teaching people how to live the Christian life. We can rejoice in the fact that even though we may not experience it day to day, in reality we have died to our sinful nature and now live in accordance with the Spirit in Christ!
Hidden with Christ
In addition to ‘homonumeric’ Bible references (in which chapter and verse are the same number), it can be particularly fun to memorise 3:16s, such as those found in John, 1 John and 2 Timothy. With regard to the holy game of Hide and Seek, Joel 3:16 below ties in very well with Colossians 3:3:
“The Lord will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem; the earth and sky will tremble. But the Lord will be a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the people of Israel.”
We are safe in Christ; we hide and are protected. He is our shield, our hiding place, our shelter from the storm. Or, as the delightfully named Augustus Toplady wrote in 1776:
Rock of ages, cleft for me;
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood
From Thy wounded side which flowed
Be of sin the double cure;
Save from wrath and make me pure.
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