Tapestry of Faith: Riddle and Mystery: A Program on the Big Questions for Grade 6

Why and Where God Hides

A speaker in the Bible says to God: "Truly you are a God who hides himself, O God and Savior of Israel." This is verse 15 from Chapter 45 in the Book of Isaiah. But the Bible is not the only place people talk about God hiding. Stories from different times and cultures tell of the same thing.

These stories give different reasons why God wanted to hide.

Some say that God became tired of being badgered by people with requests for everything.

Some say that God decided being hard to find would help people grow in their search for the holy.

Some say that God just needed a place to live.

The stories also disagree about who helped God decide where to hide. Some say it was angels. Others say it was advisors, like a president might have. Still others say it was animals.

Many different ideas floated around. One was to have God hide on the moon. But God said no, because God could see the future and knew people would someday land on the moon. A second was to have God hide at the bottom of the sea. But God said no, because God knew people would someday visit the bottom of the sea. A third was to have God hide deep in the earth. But God said no, because God knew people would someday be mining the earth.

These things have all come to pass, of course. People have been to the moon and to the bottom of the ocean and deep into the earth, and they have not found God in any of those places.

Where did God hide that was so successful? Here's where the stories come closer together. They all say in one way or another that God decided to hide inside each of us.

And that is where God remains today.