| May 3, 2021 -- Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord (Jer. 23:23–24).
It is very difficult for us mere humans to have an adequate concept of God. In fact, I suspect most of us fail in trying to visualize the Almighty. The two most common problems or misconceptions, are to make God too small or to place him too far off. As we read in the quote from Jeremiah, God fills heaven and earth. In other words, God is everywhere, without exception. He not only surrounds us, but he is also within us. St. Paul says: “For in him we live and move and have our being”. How can we tell that God dwells within us? John tells us that “We know that we live in him and he in us because he has given us his holy spirit.”
Many visualize God as an old man with a white beard, sitting on a throne, high in the heavens, who, when he wants to communicate with human beings, can only do so by sending messengers to us. And we in turn must strive mightily to communicate with him, pleading with him to come down to earth
them. And yet Moses tells us that
the word of God is very near us, it is in our mouth and in our heart. The concept of God being aloof and far off is a pagan belief, inherited from those early religions that surrounded Israel and later the early Christians. But when we come to realize the vastness of God and that there is nowhere in the universe that is apart from God, then this pagan concept should fade from our thoughts.
Why then does God sometimes feel far off? Is it not because we are only human, with human feelings, and that sometimes these feelings can deceive us? In both the Old and New Testaments, we are assured to be of good courage, and fear not, “for the Lord God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:19).
The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17)
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