You are a Hidden God

A new Year has dawned, and in the midst of the pandemic’s hold we know healing is out there, hidden in the laboratories struggling to produce the help the world needs. So much is hidden in our day-to-day lives.

Could this be the reason the Word who pressed our humanity to itself chose thirty years of hiddenness? It’s certainly not the way we would plan a redemption. Thirty years, and the only detail we have is when the child got ‘lost’ and caused his parents unbelievable pain?

Perhaps there is more here than we might think as we hurry on through this little snatch of ordinary time to the great season of lent. But, to think of it, these hidden years of the life of Jesus have much to tell us. The liturgical readings of January might serve us well if we look for ‘hidden treasure.’

The ordinary is just so…ordinary. We take it for granted. We just do it. We do our laundry, we shop, we open mail, we brush our teeth, we make supper…and so on. But didn’t the Word do just these same things for thirty years? What a colossal waste of precious time! So we might think.

Could this humble hiddenness be telling us something about what we take for granted? Could it be calling us to pay more attention to what we consider to be so…ordinary? What would happen to our little hidden lives if we did our ordinary little things with a knowing little smile on our faces, filling them with love and gratitude? What would happen to our mental health? To our attitudes…to our sense of the presence that is always with us, doing those humdrum ordinary things with us and feeling right at home? Give it some thought. Yes, truly, you are a hidden God, and we are your beloved hidden people.

With me always, you said.

But I forget.

I have all this stuff to do, you know…

The rent to pay and getting the car serviced…

Doing the laundry and cleaning…and…and…

“Martha, Martha,” you say, “…you are troubled about so many things.”

“only one thing is necessary.”

“I am with you doing all the ordinary things…

…smile!”