One time when the children were playing "Hide and Seek with God" one of them found God hiding in the wind and another found God hiding in some beautiful music and several found God hiding in people who were building a house for people with no home but the game was over they began to want something different. One of the children said, "We find God in all these different places but I don’t want to see just a part of God. I want to see all of God, all at once!" The other children agreed, and they called to God saying, "God, the next time you hide and we find you we want to find all of you, all at once. We want to see everything."

Surprised to hear their request, God said to them, "That is not as easy as you might think. Let me think about it for a little while." So God thought, "They don’t know yet that even though they can know some things about me, they can never know all of me, all at once. Why, even I don’t know all of me, all at once. Sometimes, I even surprise myself. How can I help them to understand this?" and God, thought and thought some more.

After a while God got an idea and then called to the children saying, "All right, I will hide again and this time when you find me, you will find all of me, all at once but be prepared for a surprise!" The children jumped up and down they were so excited. One said, "I think God will be something like the sky at night, with all kinds of shining lights." And another said, "I think God will be like the earth with everything growing out of it." And a third child said, "Maybe God will be like a person you can talk to." But one child reminded them, "Don’t forget God said, Be prepared for a surprise so maybe God won’t be like any of those things."

The God said, "I’m ready to hide now. Close your eyes and count to ten." So the children did and then they went to seek God, this time staying together. They looked and looked but didn’t find anything for quite a while, until finally they discovered a box all wrapped up like a present. They looked at each other and said, "Could this be God?" "Should we open it?" and finally they agreed that they should. Very carefully they took off the ribbon, and very carefully they removed the paper and then very carefully they opened the box and peeked inside.

What they saw did surprise them! It looked like lots and lots of puzzle pieces. Then they heard God say, "Put me together and then you will see all of me, all at once." So the children began to work and everyone helped. There was a piece that was a loving heart and they started with that. Next to it fitted a piece that was a peaceful, quiet feeling and next to that fitted a family sharing with others. Once they got the first pieces going, it became easier and they began to work faster. They found where the new growth of spring went and where a powerful thunder storm went. And they did find a person and the sky and the earth though they were only parts. They worked and worked, putting in more and more of the pieces until they had put in a great number of the pieces. Then they looked to see what pieces they had left and they were really surprised. The pieces that were left were empty. They fit in but they weren’t anything.

Then they said to God, "Is this truly all of you, all at once?" and God said, "Yes." But one child said, "But there are some pieces where we still don’t see you." "That’s true," said God. "Those pieces are where my mystery is." "Your mystery?" the children replied. ”You see," God said, "There is much of me that you can see but there is always a part of me that is a mystery. That is where my wonders and surprises come from." The children stood quietly for a few min, looking at the finished puzzle, with the places in it where the mystery was and they knew that they knew something wonderful.

Then they said to God, "Okay, I guess we’re ready to play Hide and Seek again, the old way. Will you go hide for us?" "Off I go!" said God and they knew that they were going to be surprised once again.