Where Is God?

As seen in the HEARTbeat and the Village Voice

We travel a great deal, don’t we?  We travel to places we know well, to some we only slightly know, and to some we’ve never been before.  On vacations we no longer use maps as a way of navigating, we use our map feature on our smart phones.  We put in the address of a retailer or a restaurant, and a voice will tell us how far it is to the next turn, and even which way to turn.  Then a voice comes across the speaker, “Your destination is on the right.”

My wife and I celebrated our anniversary earlier this month.  We drove to our favorite getaway destination but stayed in an entirely new location.  We weren’t familiar with the area and how to get to our favorite restaurants and the location of the theater where we would take in a play.  I pulled out my handy dandy smartphone, pulled up the maps, and followed the little blue dot.  There was some sense of anticipation as we got closer and closer to our destination.  Then all of a sudden we could see it!

In the beginning Adam and Eve walked and talked with God.  I’m not sure if they could actually “see” God, but they most certainly spoke with Him, and He spoke to them.  If you could pull up their location on a smart phone, Adam and Eve’s dot would always be right beside the dot that represents God, no matter where they went.

Once sin entered the garden, the two dots diverged.  No long could they walk and talk with God as before.  Certainly this must have created an emptiness in both Adam and Eve, yet they continued to honor God.  But we know from scripture, God was always with them.  On a smart phone map, God’s dot was hidden from sight but always there.

God made His dot visible once again as the nation of Israel wandered in the wilderness.  By day He made His presence known with a pillar of smoke, and by night with a pillar of fire.  He continued to make His close presence known until the nation entered into the promised land.  It was then the people started to move away from God once again, and the dots started to drift.

God wanted to settle the drifting dot issue once and for all.  He sent His son to die for us, to be the perfect offering, according to His law, to take away sin once and for all from those who would accept Jesus as their offering and as their Savior.  But what about the dot issue?

Well, if you pulled up the spiritual map on the smart phone now, there would only be one dot.  You see, God and man are no longer separated by distance as we only see one dot.  The Holy Spirit does not come to walk beside us, to inhabit a pillar of fire and smoke, but to live inside of us in our hearts – the Most Holy place.

As you think about where God is today, pull up the map on your smart phone.  That one dot you’ll see represents the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in you!  God is here!