Lets Play Hide And Seek

The sky was so pure and blue, the sun hot enough you could “fry an egg” in somebody’s head. I lazily rested in grandpa’s bench outside the barn. Some faint white clouds had formed, while I wondered if God was waiving at me behind them.

We didn’t go to church or read from the Bible, but my father a multitasked man, believed God to be a combination of creator genius, teacher and above all supreme judge who knew everything and would judge everyone some day. That was our introduction to God.

I always thought about Him, but specially when in my grandfather’s farm. When I was old enough to wonder around the sugar cane fields and go near the “capoeira” (small woods). I felt as if He was playing hide and seek with me. In my ~6 year old mind, God was sort of a mix of a very important business man with a rich child who had every toy but preferred getting splashed in the brooks and throwing pebbles at the frogs with me. I felt as if He was just waiting to be found, but not really, giggling, barely breathing not be heard by the ones seeking…

Ten years later I would look at the rice fields and feel an inexplicable “wanting to cry”…People would try to convince me, this was the effect nature had on people. That many people express a deep calm and peaceful feeling looking at a deserted beach or at a forest….But later still, at 30ish the same exactly old feeling visited me in church during worship.

Reading the book of psalms I finally got it. Psalm 22:2 says that He is Holy and enthroned among the praises of Israel. Several other psalms mention that the creation praises His glory, that the trees are vivified by Him, that the rivers clap to Him, so now I know that what I felt as a kid at the farm, as a teenager looking a the rice fields, and what others feel looking at the ocean is not a mere peaceful feeling. IT IS HIS MAJESTIC PRESENCE nearby, receiving the worship and praise, nature offers to Him.