Sardines in a Cemetery

Chances are you have played hide-and-seek as a child, or your children and grandchildren still play it. I used to play this game with my daughters at night in our two-story house. We would turn off all the lights and hide in obscure places. In the dark you could even lie in the passageway and get a great squeal when you grabbed their legs as they walked by.

One church I pastored in NZ had a great youth group, and sometimes for Saturday night entertainment, we would play sardines in the local lawn cemetery. Sardines is the opposite of hide-and-seek. One person hides and everyone looks. When you find that person you hide with them. This means you could end up with 20 young people up a tree, or behind some bushes, and one person looking for the group. Of course, they had no fear because these young people understood what the Bibe teaches about “The dead knowing nothing.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5, Ps 6:5, 30:9 etc.). On one occasion, as a joke everyone went home to a young person’s house opposite the cemetery and left one poor fellow on his own looking for the group.

Hide-and-seek is a fun game when it is a game. It is not fun in real life. There are people in this world whose lives depend on the hiding place they choose, like in the second world war where people had to hide Jews. Even in our age there are many people who are pursued for their faith. Imagine seeing your village burnt or knowing you are hunted because you stood up for what you believe.

There’s another hide-and-seek game going on in today’s world. The perpetrator of this deadly game is called a schemer (Eph 6:11) and he knows all our hiding places. He also knows something else, too. He knows that when you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your own personal friend and Saviour, you have found the only hiding place where he can’t reach you. In the shadow of the cross, you find security in Jesus that makes you safe from God’s wrath that He must ultimately exact on sin when the curtain comes down on this planet in rebellion.

A lot of young people, and even some older ones, feel that they can outrun satan and make it on their own. They can’t. He’s the second smartest one around. David prayed, “Rescue me from my enemies. O Lord, for I hide myself in you.” (Ps. 143:9). How well are you hidden?