Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them? says the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the LORD.
God is everywhere, at all times. There is no place beyond God. No place where God is not. This is both comforting and a little frightening. If only God could be looking the other way when I (fill in the blank). Nope. God is there. And God was with me when I made the choice to do (fill in the blank), so once I went to that secret place, God already knew. God does judge and insist on righteousness, and God is a god of mercy and love and restoration. But to be clear, there are no secret places, no secret thoughts.
The accompanying reflection is from A. W. Tozer, and he writes that God is omni-present, just like water is to a fish. This reminds me of another saying that a fish doesn’t know it’s in water, as it’s never been anywhere else. If God is around us like water is to fish, that creates a certain unknow-ability to us. We cannot truly know that God is all around, because we’ve never known or never existed anywhere but in God’s omnipresence. I can read that it’s true, I can mostly trust that it’s true. But I cannot really know it’s true, because I’ve nothing to compare it to, just like the fish can’t truly understand what living in water is like.
There are people who, despite God’s ever-present love, live removed from that love. They walk away from the love and grace. This can happen because they are inherently unable to accept this love, because their life choices have rendered them unable to accept the love, or because the actions of others have left them so broken they cannot access God’s love. I’m thinking of people like the sociopaths, addicts, and abused.
God is all around them too, and God’s love and mercy are just a choice away, I think. But how can I help? How can I show them God’s love, or convince them of that omnipresent, loving, merciful God? I don’t have the answers, but I love the questions. This morning, I’m thinking about how to bring others to the understanding that they too are fish in the water, even if they don’t know it.
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