Hey, God, Are You Here?
Claudia and I have been on a bit of a holiday.
As I write this we are far from home. It is just getting light, and I’m sitting at a worn oak table beside a window looking out on rolling French fields of mowed corn, harvested vineyards, nut orchards, and woodlots. The November slate-gray skies and soaking rain make staying in today…inviting. And there’s close to nothing on the agenda.
Our friends’ house is old and filled with character. It was built when Jefferson was president and their tiny village has little to draw tourists. Narrow and winding streets and a couple of shops surround the church with its spiked steeple. Bells sound the hours, like a consistent friend reminding of time passing. Quiet and dark at night, quiet and quaint in the day. It all feels very far away.
Our days over here have included time in large cities filled with noise and crowds and lines and traffic, and now in this place which is so different. And way different from Bend, as well. Everything here carries libraries full of history, while our town is a single slim paperback novella in comparison.
I woke today wondering what, if anything, Jesus is doing in a place like this, or in the crowds we swam through last week. Here, in this tiny village, have I escaped the reach of God? How about in the middle of a major metropolitan center that seems so self-absorbed? Does he see the lone man or woman riding the crowded bus with us, hear their prayers and comfort their heart?
One part of a solid belief framework is that FatherSonSprirt are close and do hear and act. The first part of Psalm 139 reminds us of the scope of the reach of God that is easily overlooked. Listen again as if for the first time.
O LORD, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, LORD. You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!
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, 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.
It’s good to remember words like these in those times when it seems like God is playing Hide and Seek.
Theologians, trying to understand what we can about an infinite God, hang descriptors of him discerned from the Book. They add “Omni”, essentially “all”, as a prefix, attached to aspects of God we can relate to. Presence, power, knowledge, and other attributes coupled with “omni” do our best to wrap short arms partly around the infinite. Inadequate, but a bit more understandable.
In this psalm, there are at least two attributes on display: Omniscience and Omnipresence.
In the first section (read about omniscience over again), God, a loving parent, reminds the psalmist that nothing is beyond his knowledge, and that he knows us better than we know ourselves. And we often confuse what he’s up to.
It’s like the story of the framed, hand-stitched line, God Is Watching You, hanging in a grandmother’s kitchen. Each time her young grandson sat at her table, he cowered. When asked what was the matter the boy pointed a finger at the frame. “I’m afraid I’ll mess up again, and God will be mad at me. He’s watching!” The older faith-filled woman pulled a chair next to the boy with arms surrounding his small shoulders and whispered, “You have it all wrong, dear child. This means that God is so in love with you that he can’t take his eyes off of you.”
God sees it all and loves you to the end. Like the boy, many of us have it all wrong and believe like he did that somehow God, watching, is just waiting for the next misstep. But read the line again that says,
“You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!”
Stop for a bit and let that sink in. The hand of blessing from the God of the universe rests on your head. He knows it all and continues to lavish his goodness on you. Such knowledge IS too wonderful and too deep to truly grasp. It will take a lifetime to understand all that hand of blessing might bring, but bit by bit we grow into that truth.
The second section speaks to his omnipresence, or the truth we believe that God is everywhere. Regardless of how we feel, no place, says the psalmist, is out of his reach, and no running will distance us so far as he cannot touch. Now, that’s good news!
It’s good news because even when we race to the hills toward any not-God destination, these verses say when we arrive, he is already there to greet us. The great Lover of our souls is wherever we are. Reading those verses again reminds us of the larger picture of God in all the parts of life and death.
He knows us through and through and still loves us by choice. That’s a slice of omniscience bathed in love.
And there is nowhere we can travel or run to or drift toward that is beyond God’s reach. That’s a glimpse of his omnipresence, with an eye on you.
Even here, this morning in rural France, God is knowing it all and close by. Wherever you are this morning reading this note, settle into that same truth. His hand of blessing is on you, always. Embraced, these bring calm confidence for all situations.
Yours is a God who knows and who is present. Rest today, friend, in that truth.
And music for the week!
Jokes? You betcha
WORDS YOU WON’T FIND IN THE DICTIONARY (but should be there!)
1) Arachnoleptic fit (n.) The frantic dance performed just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.
2) Beelzebug (n.) Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at 3 am and cannot be cast out.
3) Bozone (n.) The substance surrounding unwise people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
4) Caterpallor (n.) The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you’re eating.
5) Decaflon (n.) The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
6) Dopelar effect (n.) The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when you come at them rapidly.
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(IYKYK)
A passerby stopped to watch a baseball game taking place at the local park.
“Who’s playing?” he asked another observer.
“The Masons against the Knights of Columbus,” he responded.
“What’s the score?”
“I don’t know. It’s a secret.”