The older I get the more I find myself misplacing things – ordinary things like keys and my cell phone and important papers. I do not really lose them. They turn up. In fact, they turn up in the obvious places. But in the moment when I am looking for them, I do not see them. They are hidden in plain sight.
We have a God who hides Himself in plain sight as well. We think we lose Him or we at least cannot find Him when we need Him. When doctors speak bad news or the phone call announces death or the bills accumulate faster than money or a thousand other crises occur, God seems very far away. We pray but the answers we are looking for do not come or do not come right away. We look in the Bible for answers but we find more questions there than answers. We go to Church on Sundays but the preacher is talking about something else and not what we need and the hymns are not what we want to sing and the service lasts too long. We look for God and end up missing Him. He is hidden alright but hidden in plain sight.
A thousand details conspired to bring us the Christmas story and they seem more like coincidences than a perfectly orchestrated plan. Caesar just happens to plan a registration of people and property so that he can figure out how big the empire is. Bethlehem just happens to be full of visitors and there is no room for a pregnant woman about to give birth and her husband except in a stable. Angels just happen to organize a choir and learn music to break into song in the middle of the night when the poor baby comes. Shepherds just happen to be watching their flocks at night. Magi just happen to be headed across the miles toward Bethlehem. It is either too perfect to be a plan or too many accidents not to be.
The proof of it all is right there in front of us. God was acting in His Son to deliver up to us a Savior to rescue us from our lost condition and redeem us from all our sins and restore us as His children. Here is Emmanuel. God is not simply for us but with us and we are never alone –no matter how we feel. God has hidden Himself in plain sight – exactly where the prophets said He would be. But so very few actually saw or heard or noticed or believed. God was exactly where He said He would be but no one was looking and the few who showed up had to be told what to look for – angels and shepherds and Magi.
No one expected a baby. The mighty Lord who made heaven and earth somehow made His way into the womb of a Virgin. No wonder we missed it; how can it be? But it was and is exactly as He said. The shepherds found the baby just as the angels said. The Magi found the child just as star pointed to where He was. Joseph was a doubter who had to be won over. Even blessed Mary was not sure how this could be. And then He was there. In a manger. The face of God. The long promised Savior. The hope of the ages had now appeared. It was obvious. God hid Himself in plain sight. Only a few had the faith to see and hear while a small town slept the night away and everyone attended to their own business.
We should not be surprised. It is still that way. We think God is hidden and He is but hidden in plain sight. He is where He has promised to be. He is not in the thunder or the lightening or the storm or the darkness. But He is in the face of a child who was born to be the man among men who would save His people from their sins. Yet none of us can go back to Bethlehem to see Him. We tell the old, old story of Jesus and His birth but the stable and manger are gone. They are there no more.
God has hidden Himself in a new Bethlehem. The city of David is no longer in Palestine. It is where a people gather at the call of the Spirit in the shadows of a night like tonight. It is where water still births babies and the aged to the new birth of a life that cannot die. It is where the voice of God still speaks in a Scripture that is an active Word, doing the very thing of which it speaks. It is where sinners kneel in shame to admit the terrible things they have thought and said and done but God takes those sins away, cleansing and restoring them through absolution. It is where a house of bread still offers a miracle food that tastes of the body and blood of Christ and nourishes the mortals who eat and drink to immortality. God has hidden Himself in the obvious places, in the plain sight that seems so ordinary but is anything but.
Jesus did not look like God. He looked like you and me and every person. He wore our flesh warts and all. He was not a looker. No one would have picked this baby to be the Son of God. They would have searched in better houses among better people. But there, hidden in plain sight, the angels sang and pointed to Him who is born King and Savior and Lord of all.
Baptismal water does not look like God. It looks like, well, water – plain, ordinary and simple water. Scripture is a book of words. It is not unique competes with other books that claim to be holy.
It does not sound like God – at least not how we think God sounds. Forgiveness does not seem special and actually appears rather weak. It looks so very passive to be a heavenly voice. The bread that we soon will eat and the cup we soon will drink do not seem to be anything but bread and wine. It does not taste anything but ordinary. Yet God is here. Here in this Bethlehem of His Word and Sacraments.
Hidden in plain sight are all the rest of the blessings of God – the husband or wife whose blessing is not fully appreciated until he or she is gone; the children who test your patience but are the fruits of your love; the job you complain about but it gives you purpose and provides for your family; the presents not given or not appreciated as you would like; the food that fills not one holy day but every day with goodness; the health uncherished until illness steals it away; the life too filled with trouble but lived under the grace of God anyway; the forgiveness that seems to cost too much until you realize the value of broken relationships repaired. These are His gifts too, hidden in plain sight and too easily forgotten in the bitterness of disappointment.
In order for me to find what I have misplaced, I need to remember where I was and what I was doing and then the lost is found – hidden in plain sight. In order to see God you need to remember what He has promised and then the hidden God is revealed in all His glory – right where He said He would be. Hidden from the wise and revealed to small children, faith opens our eyes and hearts and minds to the hidden God who is right here, right now, in plain sight. Faith remembers so we see God where He has promised to be. Yes, the grace of God is often cloaked in mystery but that does not mean God is not gracious. No, it means only that in order to see it, faith must guide the way.
In our world of adult problems, it hardly seems that a baby born in a stable and laid in a manger can help. But this is the foolishness of God that is wiser than men. He who is born of Mary and present with us here with mercy and grace is the only One who can help. And that is why He has come. To help the sinner with forgiveness, to help the sorrowful with joy, to help the lost in darkness with light, to help the hungry with heavenly food, and to help the dead live. Open your eyes. Look at Him. He was always there and will always be – our Emmanuel. God with us right where He has promised to be, hidden in plain sight, so that we might behold the face of God. Now, go home and cherish what God has made known.
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