Life: an adventure, a journey with Jesus!
“Hidey Holes”

Mark 6:31 And He said to them (to me) “Come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest a while….” NAS

As a child I had a “hidey hole” a place, where as I was growing up, it was my secret place to hide. It was beyond the grassy back yard, down a slight incline to the sandy area before the tree line of what we called the ‘forest’. The swing set was there. You may remember, the metal framed swing sets with two swings, maybe a “double-seater” where you and a friend would sit opposite each other and push with your feet to smoothly sail through the air, and with a slide possibly attached to the other side of the frame. This was my place to be alone, especially if my brother and the other neighborhood children (of which there were a total of three!) were elsewhere. It wasn’t a hiding place, but it was the place I could swing freely, think freely, and dream! Even when there were others there, it was easy to lose myself in thought when swinging high above the treetops (ha ha, it wasn’t really that high, but I thought it was as high as I could possibly go, pumping my legs with all I had). It was there that I would talk to myself, feel sorry for myself, or dream dreams bigger than I ever dared share with anyone.

It seems to me that throughout our lives, we have “hidey holes” but they change with the time and circumstances. It may be our bedroom where we can close out the rest of the world (siblings or even the family!) to be by ourselves. It may have been the library where it was bound to be quiet, and no one knew if you were studying, hurting or day dreaming. Even today the local coffee shop, although it may be bustling with business and noisy, one may lose themselves in a cup of steaming black java, in a newspaper, or in the laptop. When we choose to go to our favorite places to ‘hide’ we hardly rest, do we. We worry about all the things that are pressuring us, suffocating us, and draining us.

But you notice the scripture says that we are to come away by ourselves and for a specific reason, and that was to rest a while. How can we rest if we are worried? When I looked up the verse in Mark, in the NIV translation, I realized it gave me a little more to think about. It says…..”Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." There it says that I am to come away with Jesus. And I know the familiar passages on ‘worry’ and how it is a lack of faith, and the verse in Peter that tells me to “Cast all your worries/fears/ concerns on Him because He cares for me!

As a child my ‘hidey hole’ was my place to be alone. I didn’t know the value of the time spent there as I do today. The place where I want to be is alone with Him, to rest a while.

Now, years later, I find I have a ‘hidey hole’ again! It has taken me several paragraphs to get to this point, but even here in the house, I found out in the last six months, that I needed to work in the office and rest in the living room. I was using my laptop and working in the living room for several months. But it was there that I also read, and spent time alone with my Father. So, the laptop was a constant reminder of busy-ness. More recently, I returned to the office to work and retreat in the living room to read and pray.

Just a thought….Do you have a ‘hidey hole’ now that you are an adult and you need that place of rest?