A poet once wrote:
"My son you can follow the sea or the sod
And find many things, but you'll never see God."
How true those words are for all of us. With our human eyes we cannot visualize God. And yet must something be seen to exist? When the wind blows we don't see the wind. But who can argue that the wind passes. Both the trees and flowers nod in agreement that the wind is passing by, even though we cannot see the wind.
We ourselves must admit the wind has passed merely because we see the results. And so it is with God. Though we cannot see Him we know He exists through the evidences we see, hear, feel, touch, and taste.
Where is God?
In answer to this question one might ask yet another question:
Where is God not?
God is omnipresent. He is everywhere. This does not mean He is contained in a leaf from a tree, a spire of grass, or the family dog. But throughout the vast universe His presence is always there.
In the Holy Oracles the prophet Isaiah has written in the 66th chapter the following:
"Thus says the LORD: The heavens are my throne, the earth is my footstool. What kind of house can you build for me; what is to be my resting place? (Verse 1)
That's God Himself letting us know there is no containing Him. He is much too big to be boxed in by any dwelling that exists on our tiny speck of a planet.
And yet some still ask, "Where is God?"
Where was God during the Spanish Inquisition? Between the years of 1480 and 1808 the Catholic Church impressed the Spanish government to murder 32,000 people who they deemed as heretics. An additional 125,000 supposed heretics died in prison during that time from poor sanitation and inadequate nutrition.
On August 23rd 1572 Christians in Paris, France asked, "Where is God?" This occasion came to be known as the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre. Thousands of people were murdered. Many of their butchered bodies were then thrown into the Seine thus turning that waterway a bloody red.
On March 6th 1782 the Moravian Indians, a Christian settlement of Native Americans at Gnadenhutten, Ohio undoubtedly asked, "Where is God?" That day about 100 Christians were bludgeoned to death with a Cooper's Mallet by renegade Pennsylvania militiamen. They did not resist. They did not retaliate.
In World War II the Nazi's annihilated nearly 6 Million Jews! I am sure that God's people facing their executioners during that time must have voiced the question, "Where is God?"
On September 11, 2001 nearly 3,000 people lost their lives at the suicide bombings of the World Trade Center. As many of us watched the atrocities on television there weren't just a few of us that voiced the question, "Where is God?"
Where is God? Where is God? Where is God?
Over and over, again and again, that question has surfaced in the hearts of many of us as we've become incapacitated, as we've watched loved ones grow sick, as family and friends have died. It's an extremely tough question. And it is paired with an infinitely difficult answer as well.
Where was God during the inquisition? Where was God during the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre? Where was God when the Moravian Indians were massacred? Where was God during the Holocaust? Where was God on 9/11?
And where is God today when you become incapacitated, when your loved ones grow sick, when your friends and family die? Where is God? Where is God right now?
Allow me to ask you another question.
When Jesus Christ had nails pounded through his flesh and he was pinned to rough wooden beams just like an insect in a collection, where was God? When that old rugged cross was thrust into that hole with such force that it tore at His flesh, tell me if you will...where was God right then?
I'll tell you where He was. He was there suspended in space on that old rugged cross dying for the sins of those who had believed in him, the sins of those who believed in him at that time, and the sins of people like you and me in the future who would believe in Him and would confess and ask forgiveness for those transgressions against Him and His law.
Where was the Heavenly Father at that time? The Father was right there giving His only begotten Son so that you and I don't have to die because He longs for us to have everlasting life!
So, where is God?
God is right here. Like the wind you cannot see Him. But His presence abides with us. When you are facing great trials, extreme difficulties, or even plots against your life- God is there. When evil people strive to annihilate others- God is there. When you become incapacitated, when your loved ones grow sick, and when your friends and family are destroyed by the evil one- God is there.
Where is God?
He's here, right now. And He wants to communicate with you. There's nothing magical about how you do it. He'd just like you to talk to Him as you would with a good friend. When you get finished be sure you take the time to listen as the wind whisperings of His Holy Spirit breathe to your heart.