Where In The World Is He?

People, in general and even some Christians, seem to have confusing ideas about where God is.  Children are often told that God is in Heaven (wherever that is).  'Heaven' is often thought to be somewhere 'up there'.  It's as though God is thought to be someone (or something, depending on whether you have a faith or not) who is much bigger than we mere mortals and so dwells somewhere else other than earth, which is too small to contain Him.  And so comes the dual thinking of God as being 'other' and not part of our world.  It has been asked 'Is God up there, out there, in deep space or beyond?'  Someone once said that God is the beyond in the midst.  I rather like that thought.  It reminds me of the Psalmist who said 'I often think of the heavens your hands have made and of the moon and the stars you put in place.  Then I ask, "Why do you care about us humans?  Why are you concerned about us weaklings?"' (Psalm 8:3,4 The Promise Bible)  And so we have built up confusing theories about where God exists.

People are invited to 'accept God into your heart'.  What that really means is to follow the way of Jesus and accept that He is Lord and Saviour of your life.  But we seem to think of it as having some God space within our very busy lives where we allow God to reside and take His place as Lord.  But we still keep things separate, well ordered and everything in it's place - even God.  We go to the building we call God's House where presumably God lives and spend time with Him on a Sunday morning, in the endeavour to absorb as much as we can to get us through the following week when we are unable to get to His House because of our very busy schedules of daily living.  Scientists have concluded that the part of us that we call our soul is actually in the brain.  So if God lives in our soul then really He is part of our brain.  Maybe that part of our brain controls our religious feelings and tendencies?!

The Bible clearly tells us right from the beginning 'In the beginning God ' - God spoke and all things came into being.  Creation is a result of what and who God is; His DNA is in all things; He is everywhere; we are created in His image; as part of His creation we have His DNA running through us too.  So in a very real sense He is 'the beyond in the midst', not just among us but in us.  We really don't need to sing and pray for Him to 'come down' and be with us - He already is Emmanuel - God with us.  When Jesus said that we are the temples of the living God and that the Spirit dwells in us He was telling us that God is not distant and afar off but as the Psalmist says, He is interested in us and cares about us.  What we do and how we spend our lives does actually matter to Him.  Another Psalm asks 'Where can I go from your presence?'  He is everywhere.  

A rabbi once said that Jews did not speak God's name but breathed it - Yahweh.  He said that as you take in breath you say Yah and as you exhale you say Weh.  In that way every part of your life is lived with God and even with your last breath you are with Him.  You are living God's presence in the simplicity and persistence of breathing.  Breathing is not something we do consciously, at least most of the time.  We are alive so we breathe.  It reminds me of the beautiful song, 'This is the air I breathe, God's holy presence living in me'.  Thinking of God in this way makes the last lines so true 'I'm desperate for you, I'm lost without you'.   You can hear that song here.  So where is God?  Where in the world is He?  He is all around us; He is in us; He is the beyond in the midst; He is in every breath we take; He is the very air we breathe.  Yahweh.  Breathing God.