The Virtues of Hiddenness

The Virtues of Hiddenness.

God delights in hiding things, such as people, ministries, private places, and even His Word. It is His privilege to conceal matters, and In fact, God’s glory is shown when He keeps certain things hidden. When the Lord conceals things, we honor Him for it and acknowledge His wisdom in doing so. (refer to Proverbs 25:2).

In many ways, the whole point of the Christian faith seems to be about revealing things, exposing truths that are a matter of life and death. Apparently, God loves to make things obvious… Sending His heavenly Son to earth to take on flesh for all to see is a perfect example of His desire to reveal something, namely His love and forgiveness. The incarnation was hardly a hidden event. Nor were His followers who were called to be lights of the world, shining out there for all to see what salvation and redemption look like. The light of God’s love is not to be hidden under a bushel but uncovered, shining around the world.

But it appears that God loves to keep some things hidden as well. In fact, hiddenness seems to be just as central to faith as revelation. Faith itself is hidden from the human senses and a matter of trusting in what we can’t even see or touch. There are other elements of hiddenness as well, and are central to matters of faith and practice:

1. Our entire earthly identity and personhood is “hidden within Christ inside God.” (Colossians 3:3). When we lose ourselves in Jesus, we end up finding our true selves. When we are safely tucked away into Christ, who Himself is inside God, we are in a hidden union with the eternal Trinity.
2. Following Jesus means we follow His example of frequently finding a hidden place apart, a private space to pray, examine our consciences, decompress from life’s pressures, meditate on God and His truth and His mysteries, get a fresh perspective, take a deep breath of the Holy Spirit to return to life with other people.
3. We are repeatedly called to embrace God as our hiding place, our refuge, our shelter. We learn gradually to entrust our souls into His eternal safekeeping. When we hide in God’s presence, we find forgiveness for yesterday, love for today, and hope for tomorrow. When God is our refuge, we enjoy the ultimate safe space in which God has promised to protect us from spiritual enemies and enable us to grow onward and inward into Him.
4. Following the path of Christ, we are called to serve those who have been called “the blessed forgotten.” We seek out our culture’s untouchables, and we touch them. We seek out “the least, the lost and the left out” and end up ministering to Christ in His “distressing disguise.” We seek out those on the margins and bring them into the center of the page. And while we love those who are hidden from the love of others, we become hidden as well. When we are in the midst of the forgotten, we become forgotten as well.
5. As Jesus taught in His parable of the seed growing secretly, the process of faith development is hidden from us. Our faith grows secretly, quietly, underground in our heart. The seed of the Kingdom is planted within each of us, and the eternal Farmer waters it, gives it nutrition, and it wondrously grows without our knowing how. We have clues as to how we can help our trust in God to grow, break ground, and bear fruit. But the process of how God makes it all happen is hidden from us. Who would have known that each little seed has such power and life hidden inside of it?
6. As a test of our faith, we are asked to trust God’s hidden plans by waiting. But waiting isn’t twiddling our thumbs, idly waiting for something to happen. To wait is to redeem the time by braiding together loose strands into a cohesive whole to be ready for what happens next. It is an active waiting with hope and trust in God. Active waiting means we will be ready for marching orders, we will accomplish His will during the wait, we will grow in our trust in Him as we hope into the next step in our pilgrimage.
7. We are called to be a voice, not a name. Like John the Baptist quoting Isaiah, our job is to speak God’s truth and flesh out His presence without becoming a big name, without putting our own name in lights as a celebrity. We are a nameless voice that directs others to Christ, not a famous name that directs the attention of others to us. We do not seek to become well-known in any way, but instead a voice, content in being unknown. To seek acclaim is to reduce the voice to selfish noise.
8. We are called to embrace the many mysteries of the faith, to live into these hidden truths, and remain good caretakers, stewards, of them as we live out their meaning. There are so many truths that have been hidden by God until this era, and have been revealed by the presence of Jesus. Even with these mysteries that have been revealed, there are countless more truths that are in hiding within the eternal wisdom of the Almighty. We can never get to the bottom of His knowledge and wisdom, of His storehouse of hidden truths.
9. One role of the prophet is to be a watchman, one who is hiding in safety while observing what’s going on around him or her. A watchman is on the continual lookout for where God is going to work or is already at work. A watchman is listening to the sounds of the age while keeping an ear open to God’s voice in the middle of the surrounding noise. A key quality for an effective watchman is awareness. God’s watchmen are aware of their surroundings while in a place where they can be aware of the Lord’s directions.
10. It is wise for us to do some hiding of the Word in our hearts and minds. Once God’s thoughts from Scripture are hidden in our mind and digested in our heart, then they are tucked away to become a part of who we are. When we memorize Scripture, it can then become food for the soul. It can become a reference point for us when we wander, a light for our steps when we are lost. When we fix the truths of the Bible in our minds, they can be recalled again and again to enable us to keep growing in the faith and practice of Jesus. When we allow the Word of Christ to dwell in us, then we become like Mary, who not only pondered the truths of her Son but also treasured them as well.
11. God seems to love playing “hide and seek” with His truths. He hides them from the brilliant intellects who think they know it all, the learned ones who have become unteachable, those who are content with their own wisdom and understanding, the scoffers who think God’s truths are beneath them. On the other hand, instead of hiding His truth, God is more than happy to reveal His truth to ‘babes,‘ little children in the faith; the immature in Christ; those who are inexperienced, unenlightened, unsophisticated, insignificant. God doesn’t hide His truth from those innocent ones who receive the gospel in simple faith and trust, with no ulterior motives; the unassuming ones who are usually unappreciated in the world but nonetheless are honored by God for their humble receptivity.