I Am Here

by Jim Watkins
Published April 13, 2005

I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought Israel up out of Egypt to this day. I have moved from one tent site to another, from one dwelling place to another (1 Chronicles 17:5 NIV).

"Don't run in God's house!" "God, come down and visit your people today." "God, be with Sister Smith in the hospital today." "God was certainly in the service this morning."

Those phrases annoy me as much as the electronic operator who thanks me for using AT&T and Vanna and Pat who tell me they love me. (How can a machine be "thankful" and the hosts of "Wheel of Fortune" love someone they don't even know?)

And how can the infinite, everywhere-present at every moment God of the universe be boxed in with stained glass, or banished to heaven "up there"? (If God is "up" in North America is He "down" in South America?)

No, God doesn't live "up there" or show up on Sunday mornings for a visit. Through the prophet Nathan, God assured King David that "I have been with you wherever you have gone."

The infinite, everywhere-present God of the universe chooses to live in the souls of those who have accepted His Son as Savior and Lord.

God is in that energetic five-year old running through the building. ("God's house" is the one doing the running!) God is in those who have come to worship him. God is with Sister Smith at Memorial Hospital room 205, Bed 2. And when God's people allow him to express himself, they do sense that "God is here."

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