Where is God?

“My days fly faster than a weaver’s shuttle and come to their end when the thread runs out” (Job 7:6, JPS).

“What is man, that You make much of him, that You fix Your attention upon him? You inspect him every morning, examine him every minute” (Job 7:17,18, JPS).

God so loves His creation, and the response from man—where is God?

Job could have asked the same question, fallen into the rationale of which his friends attempted to convince him. But Job was bothered not in the sense of where was God, not that God had interrupted his good life, but he was bothered by the weight of his own faith, a love that every faithful person must come upon that bears the burden of man’s surface belief and avoidance, the burden of the question—where is God?

The weight of such a burden would be fatal should we fall into despair, if we as George MacDonald writes about Job’s friends, “that is, men who would pay their court to God, instead of coming into His presence as children; men with traditional theories which have served their poor turn, satisfied their feeble intellectual demands, they think others therefore must accept or perish; men anxious to appease God rather than to trust in Him; men who would rather receive salvation from God, than God their salvation.”

Of this burden, this question, where should we turn but to God, to the only One who can answer, as He will, as He already has? Did not Christ in the midst of His pain on the Cross, in the midst of shouldering our sins not turn to God upon His last breath and commit His spirit? If such as this question hosts a thought with each inhalation and exhalation, such brings us closer to Christ, to the love He had for men, for the love that God has for His creation that He should make much of him. Thus, this burden speaks of love, a striving love, a finding love.

So, where is God? He is at the end. The end of what?

He is there at the end of our ego, our pride and vanity. He is there at rock bottom, the end of our journey, the destination we thought would be fulfilling, but was not. He is where we least expect Him. He is there when we do not believe and doubt, when we do not see or cannot. He is there when matters are not placed in His hand but taken for an end we had in mind. He is there when grace appears. And haven’t all received grace though we called it by the imposter’s name fate and luck? He is there when finally we turn to Him, waiting as He so loves His creation.

What should speak to our bewilderment but to remember the thread of God’s promise in scripture that says He will never forsake us.

But where was He? Well—He was there in the beginning. Did you not know?

“Those who have ears to hear, let them hear” (Matthew 11:15, NKJV).