EVERYWHERE AND NOWHERE

Psalm 139:7-12
7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," 12 even the darkness will not be dark to You; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to You.

Among our family friends is a couple who, like my wife and me, are struggling to make sense of their teenage daughter's death in a car accident. Lindsay died on September 11, 2001, and our daughter, Melissa, died nearly 9 months later. Lindsay and Melissa knew each other and had gone to the same school and church for years.

On the second anniversary of Lindsay's death, her mom wrote an essay about her ordeal for our local newspaper. One of the saddest, most haunting images in her essay was this: After describing how many pictures and remembrances of Lindsay she has put around their house, she said this: "She is everywhere, but nowhere."

Our girls still smile back at us from those pictures, but the spirited personalities that lit up those smiles and laughed those
joyous laughs are nowhere to be found. They are everywhere--in our hearts, in our thoughts, in all those photos--but nowhere.

Indeed, when we take some time to contemplate this riddle of life, we realize that there is an answer. Lindsay and Melissa are not really nowhere. As Christians, they are enjoying the presence of Jesus. The moment they left their bodies here on earth, they were "present with the Lord." In fact, they joined up with the One who we might say is "Nowhere--but everywhere."

We don't see God in a human form. We certainly don't have smiling pictures of Him on our mantel. In fact, if you look around your house, you may think He is nowhere. But we know that's not true. We know that He is omnipresent--He's everywhere. Wherever we go on this earth, God is there. He is there to guide us, lift us up, strengthen us, comfort us, and remind us of who He is. We cannot go where He is not (Psalm 139:7).

No, we don't see Him, but He's everywhere. We can be sure of His love and peace every day. --Dave Branon

DESTINATION POINTS

* I cannot see God. What makes me know He's here?
* What's the difference between the fact that God is everywhere, and pantheism (the belief that everything is God)?

LINKS:
God Our Father
http://www.discoveryseries.org/q0108

Where Do We Go From Here?
http://www.discoveryseries.org/q1202

bottom line: God is there even when we feel alone.

soul journey