Tag

Tag

By Grant Gaines

Tag is undeniably one of the most popular games in the whole world. You don’t need a ball, you don’t need any equipment, all you need is a couple of friends and an energetic spirit. We’ve all played tag at one point in our life, but I would dare to bet that none of us have played tag quite like Nordstrom CEO Brian Dennehy and his nine companions have.

You see, 23 years ago when these ten friends were just young aspiring businessmen at Gonzaga Preparatory School, they began to play a friendly game of tag before class every morning. This single game of tag continued to be played every day for four years that the group was together at school…and has continued to this day, 23 years later.

These men, many of which have wives and families, have been known to literally fly across the world just to tag their unsuspecting friend who was on a business trip. They have recruited their wives, mutual friends, and business partners as “spies”. They will go to any length not to be “it”.

While we have never played a game of tag quite as long or quiet as expensive as these ten guys, we all, at one point in our life, have had an unquenchable passion for this simple little game.

Have you ever stopped and wondered why we all had this inherent desire to run after each other?  I mean, if you really think about it, no one had to teach us how to play tag, it’s just something that we did. And it’s not just an American cultural thing either, the game of tag is played across the world. So what is it about running to and from others that has had kids playing with joy for centuries? I would argue it has a lot to do with the way we were made.

If you look all the way at the beginning of your Bible you will find an account of God creating the heavens and the earth in six days. One of the things that He created was mankind, starting with Adam on day six. But unlike every other thing that God crafted, man was unique because God, “…created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27, NIV). You, my friend, were created in the image of God!

This explains a lot of our natural instincts. Why do you want to win? Because the God whose image you were created in is a victorious God (1 Corinthians 15:57). Why do you desire love and relationships with others? Because the God whose image you were created in loves us and desires a relationship with us (1 John 3:1). And why do you love playing tag? Because the God whose image you were created in loves to “play tag” with us. Let me explain.

After Adam and Eve sinned, do you remember what God did? Certainly a perfect, holy, and unblemished God would immediately banish the sinful couple from His presence, wouldn’t He? Not quite. Instead, we read that while Adam and Eve were hiding from the Lord because of the shame they felt from their sin, God came in search of them (Genesis 3:8-9).

And then after laying out the punishment for their sins (Genesis 3:14-16), do you remember what God did? This is where He banishes them from the Garden of Eden, isn’t it? Not yet. First, before God kicked Adam and Eve out of the Garden and out of His presence, the Lord Himself made a sacrifice for Adam and Eve. The Guiltless One made a sacrifice for the guilty.

Finally, after He had approached Adam and Eve in their sin and personally took the burden of offering a sacrifice for the two while they were still indebted to their sins, God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden. So say goodbye to man’s access to God…right? Not quite. After kicking them out of the Garden, guess where we find the Lord in the very next chapter (Genesis 4)? Yep, you guessed it, approaching sinful man outside of the Garden of Eden knowing that they couldn’t approach Him.

The list goes on and on of the Lord approaching man – chasing after him if you will – but what greater example do we have of a pursing God than when the Great I AM Himself came down to earth in the form of Jesus Christ?

Just as the Lord took on the burden of making the atoning sacrifice for Adam and Eve in the garden, “God made [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21, NIV). And just as the Father did not wait for Adam and Eve to clean up their mess before offering that sacrifice, “…God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8, NIV).

You see, God did not start pursuing man the day Jesus was born in a manger in the little town of Bethlehem, it is in His eternal and unchanging nature do to so. God always has and always will run after His children.

Do you need to be reminded of that today? Maybe you’re in a slump spiritually and don’t feel like you have the same zeal for the Lord that you once had. Don’t let your emotions blur your vision of the truth that the Lord of all creation is running after you. Though He owns, “…the cattle on a thousand hills” (Psalms 50:10, NIV), nowhere in Scripture do we see Him running after, let alone dying for, those cattle as He did for you. You are “…apple of [His] eye…” (Psalms 17:8, NIV). You are His beloved child (1 John 3:1). You are the one for which, “[God] gave His one and only Son, that [if you] believe in Him [you] shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, NIV).

The Rock of Ages is running after you. The promised Messiah is chasing you. Creator of the Heavens and the Earth is pursuing you all because He loves you.

The pursuit God has on you makes the game Brian Dennehy and his friends play look like a pebble next to Mount Everest. Brian and his friends have been chasing each other for 23 years, God has been chasing you from before time began (Psalms 139:16). The ten colleagues have chased each other across the world, the Lord has chased you across the universe (John 1:14).

Isn’t it great to know that we have a God that we can’t outrun?

“I can never escape from Your Spirit!
I can never get away from Your presence!
If I go up to heaven, You are there;
if I go down to the grave, [a] You are there.
If I ride the wings of the morning,
if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
even there Your hand will guide me,
and Your strength will support me.
I could ask the darkness to hide me
and the light around me to become night—
but even in darkness I cannot hide from You.
To You the night shines as bright as day.
Darkness and light are the same to You.”

Psalms 139:7-12 (NLT)

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©Grant Gaines 2013