Hidden in Plain Sight!

When I was a young child I was introduced to the joy of hunting easter eggs. You remember don't you? Of course you do. It went something like this. The grown-ups would hide the eggs while the teenagers would occupy the children until all the eggs were hidden. Then with baskets in hand with that fake green grass lining the baskets the children were sent to the general location where the eggs were hidden. My first experience found me watching the older children scramble around finding egg after egg as their baskets began to fill to capacity. My egg finding abilities were no match for the other egg hunters. I noticed my mother calling me over to where she was standing. So I went to her. She urged me to find the egg that was in close proximity to where she was standing. I looked and looked but to no avail. Suddenly, an older kid walks up to where my mother and I are standing and there in plain sight was the egg she had wanted me to find. I only saw it when the older child drew attention to it and then picked it up and put it in his basket. It was wedged in the fork of bush and for me it was hidden in plain sight. 

Now that's exactly how I've experienced truth, as I think about it. Sometimes those little nuggets were totally concealed from my mind's eye until someone else caught a glimpes of it and pointed it out to me. Perhaps that is why Jesus spoke in parables. I'm becoming more and more convinced that he was hiding the truth in plain sight. I don't think this was his idea of keeping the truth from anyone. And I don't think he was playing games either. Our discovery of the truth is far too important to get lost in some religious game. The truth about the truth is only discovered by those who really want to find it. Much like the treasure hidden in an agricultural field that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 13. The treasure is the Truth and it is hidden within each of us, the field. Jesus goes off and gives everything he has to purchase us, the field because the treasure is hidden within each and everyone of us and its been there all the time.

The joy of easter egg discovery happens when the egg is seen by the child for the first time and he or she makes an enthusiastic beeline to claim it as their own. Why even the apostle Paul said that God hid this treasure in earthen vessels. The treasure, like the egg for the child, was there all the time hidden in plain sight!