Where is God?

This question has been asked again and again down through history.
Maybe God is in a certain place, like a temple or high on a mountain.
Maybe God is with a certain people, like the rich or those who look like us.
Maybe God is at a certain time, like 10am on Sunday.
Maybe God is where certain rituals are done or certain beliefs are held.

Where is God?

Because it doesn’t seem like God is here. Just look around.
Oppression.
Disease.
Violence.
Delusion.
Selfishness.
Corruption.
Blame.
Lies.
Hate.
Fear.

If God were here, things would be different, wouldn’t they?
So where is God?

God is near.

This was the radical, earth-shaking, wonder-producing announcement
of the writers of the Jewish Scriptures and the earliest followers of Jesus.

God is not somewhere else. Not far away.
God is near.
Here.

Things are messed up because we’re here, not because God is missing.
Our choices …
breaking the cosmos,
breaking this world,
breaking our identity.

Yet still God is near.
In the hand that offers help.
In the ear that hears the oppressed.
In the invitation to heal.
In the arms that embrace.
In the air that we breathe.
In the feet that stand up for others.
In the voice that speaks of hope.
In the invitation to return to the life we were created for.

God is in the middle of the mess.
To acknowledge it.
To mourn it.
To heal it.
To reshape it.
To recreate it.

God doesn’t ignore it or explain it away or act like it’s not happening.
He doesn’t sit at a distance to judge and blame
those who are responsible for the mess.
He enters it. To transform it.

If you truly want to know where God is and see Him most clearly,
you have to be willing to see the mess—both in you and in the world around you—and move closer to it.

When we understand that God is near,
when we have the courage to see the mess in us and because of us,
when we don’t pull back, but instead move toward,
we will no longer ask, “Where is God?”

For He will be in us.

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Genesis 28:16
Exodus 33:15-16
Psalm 139:7-10
Zephaniah 3:17
Matthew 1:23
Matthew 28:19-20
John 4:24
John 14:18-24
Acts 17:25-27
Colossians 1:15-17