Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

How do you hide something big and noticeable? How would you hide an elephant? How about a tree? How about a barn? How? Really? To hide an elephant, you would put a lot of elephants around it. Trying to find a particular elephant in a herd is hard. A tree would be in a forest surrounded by many other similar trees and to hide a barn you would build more barns, all large and painted red and then you would hide all the road signs to get there.

How do you find an elephant in a herd? How do you find a particular tree in a forest? How do you find the correct barn when it is surrounded by other barns? First you need to know what you are looking for. You need a general idea of what it is. If you had never seen an elephant before and you were trying to find one, how would you know when you found it? You also need to know what differentiates it from all the other imitations out there. When you look for that special tree, you ignore all the trees of different types. Then you ignore all the trees whose branches fork differently or have different marks or knotholes in it. Eventually after ruling out every tree in the forest that it is not, you will find the right tree. You know what the barn looks like that you want to find, so you just ignore all the barns with the too-bright paint or the new tin roof. You pass by all the barns with the not-quite red paint until you get to the barn with the fading red (but not too faded) paint and the tin roof is beat up by the weather, but still structurally sound. You see the familiar wind-vane and you remember all the scraped paint on the doors. When you are at the right barn, you know it because it is right and meets all the requirements to be the right one.

How do you hide the real God? How do you find the real Jesus? You need to look and seek and search for Him. While everyone else is searching for the right clothes ,or good food, or the right gift for that special someone, you need to be searching for Jesus and His righteousness. Somehow clothes become less important and you will find them in your closet. Food becomes less needed and you will have enough to eat and to live. When God is first in our lives, while His desires become the foremost desires of our lives, when His kingdom is uttermost in our lives we begin to see our physical and spiritual needs met in such an amazing manner that it can not be anything but clearly God's work. When all our needs are met despite our not worrying about them our lives can not help but glorify God.

When we seek Christ and His kingdom to our uttermost, when we find it we will see -eventually – that He was always with us.

Dear Jesus, in whose life I see
all that I would, but fail to be,
let thy clear light forever shine,
to shame and guide this life of mine.

Though what I dream and what I do
in my weak days are always two,
help me, oppressed by things undone,
O thou whose deeds and dreams were one!