Hiding From our Problems

   There is a friendly lizard that hangs out in my backyard in a large cedar tree. He blends in perfectly with the bark on the cedar tree. On almost any afternoon I can go by the tree and spot him somewhere on or around the tree, looking for his next meal. You may ask “what is a friendly lizard”? Well, most of the lizards that I see run off as soon as I get near them, but for some reason this particular lizard does not seem to be afraid of me. I have photographed him several times, from a distance of only a couple of feet! He seems to enjoy getting his picture taken!

      As the weather turned colder this fall, I started seeing him in the early mornings, hiding under the bark of the cedar tree. Although his head was hidden under the bark, the rest of his body was fully exposed. I’m sure that he felt secure, not realizing that most of his body was totally exposed to any predators that might fly by. I was hoping that he wasn’t going to try to hibernate, with his head covered by the cedar bark. Fortunately, just before our first hard freeze, he disappeared, hopefully in a much more secure place.
At times we humans get overwhelmed and take the ostrich approach and try to “hide our heads in the sand”, or “under the bark” as in the lizards case. Sometimes we are hiding from the things we know we need to do and other times we are hiding from God. Hiding from, ignoring, or procrastinating about issues in our lives never makes things better. The quicker we address the issues in our lives, the better off we are. Trying to ignore or hide from God is a totally futile effort. In Jeremiah 23:24 the Lord asks: “can any man hide himself in the secret places that I shall not see him?” and then tells is that the Lord fills the heaven and earth.
      Sometimes our hidings or procrastinations can bring disastrous results. Jonah did not want to follow God’s directions and ended up in the belly of the whale! In the end, Jonah finally obeyed God’s directions. We will all be much better off if we do not hide from our problems. Its time to face reality and pull our heads out of the sand and out from under the cedar tree bark! In Psalms 27:5 David tells us that: “For in the time of trouble he (God) shall hide me in his pavilion”. The only hiding we need to do is allowing God to hide us and take care of us!