Omnipresence is such a big word to grasp. This morning I read a definition by Priscilla Shirer that struck me in a new way.
“He’s everywhere at the same time, no less in one location than in another. All of God is where you are, every moment of every day.”
It was that idea that “ALL” of God is where I am. Somehow in my feeble brain, I guess I probably assumed that God was spread pretty thin all over the universe. Maybe more of Him was present in the important places. That He is ALL here right now, well, it is not that I don’t believe it; it’s just hard to absorb.
Throughout humanity’s encounters with God, there is this concept of entering or fleeing, from the “presence of the Lord”. What’s the point if all of God is everywhere?
Actually, David says there really isn’t a point. Psalm 139 declares that God knows us inside and out, and no matter where we go we cannot get away from Him! Not only that but He has been intricately involved in our being from the first moment of our existence onward until our final breath.
“16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.”
The word used to indicate seeking or fleeing the “presence of the Lord” has more to do with desiring or leaving an official audience with a king. In other words, when I seek the Lord, I am asking for an encounter, a conversation, a deliberate interaction with the King of the Universe. I am centering my ever-so-easily distracted focus on being present with Him.
On the other hand, fleeing His presence is to reject Him as my focus. It is essentially an attempt to ignore God. Jonah and others throughout history would attest that this is not a good life choice. Francis Thompson captured the futility of trying to flee God in the poem Hound of Heaven.
“I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways of my own mind; and in the mist of tears, I hid from Him.”
In spite of all that the writer indicates that he did to escape God, the ever-present Voice still reminds him in the end, “‘Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest, I am He Whom thou seekest!”
That is the point! What we desperately need, is the very presence we so often try to escape.
Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Exodus 33:14, And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
Acts 2:28, You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’
If we really want to LIVE, we need to stay present with the Presence!