It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, and the glory of kings is to search it out. (Proverbs 25:2)

A friend and I decided to do an “escape room” recently, and we had so much fun! One of the rules to the game was that we must go into the room with no belongings and no cell phones. “Why no cell phones?” I asked half curious, half disappointed. “To make sure there’s no cheating.” I was told.

As we began this little journey together, I couldn’t help but think to myself how the fun would be sucked right out of the entire experience if we were to cheat or worse, if someone were to tell us where all the clues were and what they meant. It was the mystery of the experience that made it so magical, and putting our heads together to come up with the answers was the fun part.

With every clue we found, there was joy that sparked inside of us. If we had found all the clues at once, in one place, it wouldn’t have been as rewarding. With each discovery, more excitement began to build.

Have you ever asked God why He hides Himself? It’s not to turn away people, but rather, to turn away the right people. God wants a relationship with those who want Him, those that want Him enough to seek Him.

God wants us to pursue Him because it’s in our pursuit of Him, we find pebbles of joy, moments of pure bliss grounded by the sober reality of our mundane world. The more we pursue, the more we come to know and understand God and His character, more joy building inside of us with each passing day.

I asked God the question we all wonder—why He hides Himself. When something isn’t hidden, there can be no revelation. It is the gift of the hidden thing—that one day the hidden thing may be revealed.