A devotional – hide and seek

Published:

January 30, 2023

We invite you to take a peek inside our weekly Light for the Way devotional series provided for staff.

By Pastor Keith Lomen, Pastoral Care Director, Waverly Gardens

“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.” —Isaiah 55:6

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” —Matthew 6:33

I have two very active grandsons, Jaxson and Luca, ages 6 and 2. We have a lot of fun together doing many kinds of activities, but one of our favorite games is Hide and Seek. Those kids are amazing, in that they can fit into the smallest cracks and crevices, and they can hide in places one would never expect to find a human being! Shoehorning into a kitchen cupboard, for example, is no problem for those kids! When we play the game, of course, I, Grandpa, am the ‘seeker’ most of the time.

Speaking of seeking, the Bible is a veritable treasure chest of wisdom and great information. One way to know your Bible better is to occasionally do a ‘word study.’ It simply means looking into a concordance and finding all the references to a specific word in the Bible. One fun word to study, I have found, is the word ‘seek.’

Interestingly, we are not told to ‘seek after’ very many things in Scripture. The two verses above urge us to ‘seek the Lord,’ and to ‘seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.’ Beyond seeking God, we are only really exhorted in Scripture to seek after one other thing, and that is wisdom.

The good news about seeking after God is that, unlike my grandsons, God is not hiding from us. He has gone to great lengths to reveal Himself to us — in creation, in His Word, and in the person of Jesus Christ. He WANTS us to know Him, and He’s calling out to us in many ways, trying to get our attention.

What about you? Are you seeking God in your life? Are you consistently worshiping Him, praying to Him, reading His word, spending time with Him? Seeking God is in fact a lifelong quest and a worthy pursuit.

Perhaps you have seen the thoughtful bumper sticker which reads ‘Wise Men Still Seek Him.’ It’s true. Are you one of those wise men or women who seek after the God of the universe? Happy seeking!

Pastor Keith Lomen serves as a pastoral care director at Waverly Gardens in North Oaks, Minn. He is happily married for 37 years to his beautiful wife Nan. They have two sons and two grandsons and are actively enjoying (and fixing up!) their new home in White Bear Lake. Pastor Keith loves sports and follows them all, and he still plays as many of them as he can.

The Light for the Way series provides staff with an examination of a biblical reading to deepen our focus on scripture. Thank you for engaging with this series as we seek wisdom through prayer and reflection as a Christian Ministry.