When children are little, we often play a hide-and-seek game with them called Peekaboo. In Peekaboo, we hide our faces with our hands or an object, or we might even hide altogether so the child can't see us and then reappear with a “boo." The child often laughs out loud, delight in their eyes to see a family member or friend reappear.
Scientists tell us that this game benefits babies as, amongst other things, it enables them to learn object permanence. Web MD explains, "Object permanence means that you know an object or person still exists even when they are hidden, and you can’t see or hear them. Child psychologist Jean Piaget discovered this concept, and it is an important milestone in a baby's brain development."
As a child of God, I have discovered that I often have the same problem: if I can't see God at work or sense his presence, then I wonder if He is really there. I clearly need to learn the object permanence of faith.
Isaiah 41:10 is a good example of this.
"Do not fear, for I am with you;
Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, surely I will help you,
Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."
You can see an anxious child in this passage looking about trying to find out where their mum or dad has gone. We do the same thing when we can't see God answering our prayers or fixing our problems; we look around ourselves in worry and fear, running scenarios of everything that could go wrong if God doesn't do something.
And God tells us, "Hold on—don't look about anxiously like that. I am right here with you!”
Note that God doesn't tell Israel or us that He will remove all the things that frighten us. In the following verses, God explains how the people against the Israelites will be dealt with, but He doesn't say he will magically make them disappear.
No, He says the solution to their and our fear is knowing that even if we can't see Him at work right now, He is with us, holding us up in His right hand—Object Permanence.
That little line," I am with you," is one of God's go-to responses to his fearful people.
He says it to the Israelites when they are about to lose Moses and cross into the promised land without him. (Deuteronomy 31:6)
He says it to Joshua about taking over Moses' role in leading Israel. (Joshua 1:9)
He has Isaiah remind Israel of this multiple times. (Isaiah 41:1, 10, & 43:5)
And it is Jesus' final words to his disciples as he ascends to heaven: "I am with you always." (Matthew 28:20)
In a world crippled by loneliness, uncertainty and fear, we need the object permanence of knowing that our God is with us and that our God is holding us in His righteous right hand.
As infants learn object permanence by seeing their parents disappear and reappear, we learn to trust in God's presence through His apparent absences. We all experience them, those times when it seems like God is somewhere else, and as our prayers go unanswered, our peace vanishes, and God's protection seems nowhere to be found. How can we develop object permanence regarding God's presence in our lives? I have found three ways to help me when it seems to me that God is not actively present.
When a parent plays Peekaboo with a child, they are not absent, even though the child cannot see them. To reassure the child, they speak to them and ask, "Where is Mummy?" The child can still hear their mother’s voice, which reassures them. We can do this by returning to the Biblical promises of God’s presence, including those I wrote above. These verses remind us that God is always with us, whether in this moment we can hear or sense Him or not.
In Exodus 13:3, God tells the Israelites to remember that He came and rescued them and to teach that truth to their children. We can do the same thing by retelling the "God's re-appears" stories of scripture (e.g. The Exodus, Ezra and Nehemiah and the return from exile and Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection are great places to start). In revisiting these moments when God reappears, we build our expectations of Him doing the same in our lives.
As a child laughs with delight when their parent reappears with a "boo" we need to rejoice in God's reappearances in our lives. We do this when we tell our stories, the stories of answered prayers (especially when we didn't trust that He would answer). The stories of the times we couldn't see God at work, and then He stepped into the light, and we could see what He was doing all along. And even the stories of the places in our lives where we are still faithfully waiting to see God act, knowing that He will in His right time. When we retell these stories to ourselves and share them with others, we can experience that delight again and build our faith through our memories.
Where do you need to build your expectation of God’s presence? Where does God seem absent in your life now? Is there an unanswered prayer or a lack of faith or peace that troubles you? Perhaps it is time to play the Peekaboo of faith and retell your stories of our God and His perpetual presence with us!
Photo by Melbin Jacob on Unsplash
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