Hide-N-Seek

Dear Friends and Neighbors:

            Do you ever get lost?  I do!  I’m petrified about getting lost out in the Manila traffic.  You go down one street but can’t come back the same way.  And then the “crocodiles” (those are the policemen who look for you to give you a ticket and then take away your driver’s license!) get you!    

            Do you ever feel lost?  I do!  I’ve spent a lot of my life wondering and wandering--where am I?, who am I?, and where am I going?.  Like the Cheshire Cat says, if you don’t know where you’re going, it doesn’t matter which road you take.  It’s really good that the Gospel helps me and tries to tell me where I was, why I’m here, and where I’m supposed to go!”  But I get pretty lost along the way sometimes.    

            My first mission in London, England was great, because I was nearly “always in a fog!”  I think the fog has never left me, except when the sunshine burned it out for awhile while we were in Las Vegas.  My clouded mind often has its rain storms—sometimes monsoons!  Yes, Manila and the Philippines has been the perfect place for me!   

            Do you remember the L’ll Abner cartoon of Joe Bfs@t*stk or something like that.  He always had a little dark cloud following him around everywhere he went.  Do you ever feel like that?  Do you ever feel your lost and fallen state and the nature of our clouded condition?  Do you ever feel like a lost soul!  I hope someday to better find myself and not to feel lost.  I’m so glad that there is One who is clear-headed and who knows the path and leads the way!  Quick!!  You’d better read Sister Taylor’s article, “Hide-n-Seek,” attached.   

 

Love, George & Debbie

Hide-n-Seek

Today in the temple, it dawned on me that Gods children have been playing “Hide–n—Seek” with Him from the beginning of time.  You remember the game?  The goal is to be the last person found. One player, the Seeker, closes his eyes at the home base, then turns his back away from everyone for a brief period of time, and then counts to 100 while everyone hides. The Seeker then opens his eyes and tries to find those hiding. The first to be found is the next Seeker. The last to be found or to return to home base while the seeker is away looking for the others, is the Winner!

People play this game all over the world.  In Spain ‘Hide-n-Seek” is called “el escondite,”  in France, “jeude cache-cache,” in South and Central America, “tuja,” in Equador and Chili, “escondidas,” in Israel, “machboim,” in South Korea, “sumbaggoggil,”  in Romania, “de-av-ati ascunselea,” in Nigeria, “oro,” and in Greece, “kry fto.”  

In Genesis 3, we read of Adam and Eve disobeying and partaking of the fruit of “the knowledge of Good and Evil”?  You remember when they heard the voice of the Lord God calling, “Where art thou?”  They ran and hid.  Do you think that God only called once, or did he count to 100? Am I still playing Hide-n-Seek with God? Sometimes I even think that if I close my eyes, God won’t see me.  Is my goal to be the last one found?

Can you imagine how much time God spends calling and searching for us? He is the great Seeker!  How much better would it be if we became the Seeker?  Isn’t the gospel of Jesus Christ trying to teach us how to seek, find, and listen when the voice of God calls to us?  Maybe the last one found is really “the Loser!”  Wouldn’t it be better if we became the seekers and searchers of God and for His children? What would my life be like if I ran to God as soon as I make a mistake instead of hiding? What kinds of blessings would he bestow upon me? I might even become more like Him and rejoice when I am found.

Debra Taylor 9/2012