Everywhere...All the Time

Have you ever wished you could be several places at one time?  Maybe you double-booked appointments and had trouble choosing which one to keep and which one to cancel.  Maybe your children had school functions at the same time and you attempted to tread the murky waters of decision knowing that the choice will please one child and haunt the other (or haunt you).  This dilemma can cause much anxiety to us as humans, but what about God?  Does He struggle with this issue knowing that almost 7 billion people inhabit this Earth?  Obviously there must be some serious scheduling issues in Heaven.

However, God never has a problem keeping up with His creation, especially those He calls children.  There is a strange theological position called omnipresence.  This big word simply describes the attribute of God in that He is present everywhere at all times – not just present, but fully present.  How is that possible?  God is present by way of the Holy Spirit.

Psalm 139:7-12 in the Message states, “Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit—to be out of your sight? If I climb to the sky, you're there! If I go underground, you're there! If I flew on morning's wings to the far western horizon, You'd find me in a minute— you're already there waiting! Then I said to myself, "Oh, he even sees me in the dark! At night I'm immersed in the light!" It's a fact: darkness isn't dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they're all the same to you.”

This is difficult for us to comprehend because of our human limitations.  However, God is not limited by our human reason or thought.  God is not confined to our three dimensional world.  However challenging this may be to us, God’s omnipresence can be life-changing when we live with the knowledge that God is right here, right now wherever I am.

God is with me at home with my family, at school with my friends, and at work with my peers.  God’s omnipresence gives me assurance that I will never face another life situation alone.  God’s omnipresence literally fulfills the promise Jesus made in Matthew 28:20 when He said, “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” and the promise of Hebrews that declares God will never leave us nor forsake us.

Maybe that’s why Jesus is called Immanuel, which means “God with us.”  Maybe this is why one of God’s descriptive names in the Old Testament is Jehovah Shammah – “the Lord is there” (wherever you are!)  Maybe God doesn’t have a problem keeping up you and me, because He’s everywhere…all the time.