Hidden in the Trees
Is where whatever it is you seek will always be.
It often feels as though life is one big game of hide-and-seek. We are constantly looking for something or someone to make us feel like our life has meaning. For some, it is a career. For some, it is a relationship. For some, it can be a hobby. Anything you can possibly imagine, someone is probably toiling away trying to find it to give their life some semblance of meaning.
Every time I go into a place such as a forest, I am quickly reminded of how short-sighted I truly am. While I am merely meandering my way through the brush, with the sounds of songbirds haranguing me from above, I am blissfully unaware that I am always being watched—and often being watched by the creatures that I seek the most.
Recently, my family and I have been on an expedition to find owls. And I’m not sure what you know about owls, but they are very particular, stoic, yet so majestic creatures. Most of the time we would scan the canopy above for what felt like forever, just to finally see him looking at us from a lowly branch.
As we quickly realized that he was always watching us, it made me wonder what he thought. Did he get a kick out of us trying to find him when he was watching us the whole time? Was he perturbed by our presence and the incessant sound of leaves crunching below our feet with every step we took? I’ll never know. You’ll never know.
The truth of life is that what we seek is almost always right next to us; and while we are all keenly aware of this fact, we still spend so much of our time looking up towards the sky as though it is not true.
Much like the owl, whatever it is that you seek is always closer than you think. And for me, that means reminding myself that God is always right there. Even amidst my sorrowful cries for help, my unnerving calls for him to show himself, and my missing the mark almost every time.
He is always there. Perched just high enough to always watch over me, yet always low enough to where I can see Him. That is where my God abides.