Playing Hide and Seek With God
This is for the children’s mass today.
God has given us a commandment to keep holy the Sabbath day. God never said which day of the week is the Sabbath, just that we are to work six days and rest on the seventh day. Because Jesus was raised from the dead on Sunday, we look at Sunday as being our special day for God. It is a day to spend time with families, to pray as a family, and most important to come to church to praise and worship God.
Sometimes we think that God is not watching. If we miss church does He even know? There is a game we play. Everyone who has ever been around a little baby knows this game. It is called peek-a-boo. In this game the older person covers their face with their hands. To help the baby understand, the older person says where am I. Then they open their hands quickly and say peek-a-boo. The baby giggles and laughs and the older person begins to laugh. And then we do it all over again. This game is teaching the baby that they can trust the older person even if they cannot see the older person’s face.
As the child becomes more familiar with the game you now add in a small blanket. You cover the baby’s face and ask “where are you?”. Then you pull the blanket away and say “there you are!”. After a few times of this you take the next step. When you cover the baby’s head and ask where are you now you leave the blanket in place. The baby becomes impatient and tugs on the blanket and as the baby can see you the baby now says here I am. And everyone laughs and giggles. Again bonds of trust are being formed. The baby trusts you more.
Now if you as the older person would consider yourself as God do you see the symbolism of God working with us? We need to learn that because we cannot see God’s face, we trust that He is there. And sometimes God leaves us covered with the blanket to teach us to find our way out still trusting Him to be there when we say here I am.
God said we are to be like little children, trusting in Him. As we grow older the game changes. We realize God always knows where we are. But now we respond in love speak Lord your servant is listening.
May the Lord bless you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen