Where is God?

Detail from 1897 painting by Paul Gauguin: D'ou venons-nous? Que sommes-nous? Ou allons-nous?" (from the website "Woher_kommen_wir_Wer_sind_wir_Wohin_gehen_wir")

“Where is God?”  One site says that's the ultimate question from mankind, but that is an incomplete question.  Most people ask, "Where is God in the midst of my personal tragedy?"  We each ask about God when we consider Gauguin’s question: "Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?" And, what difference does it make?

There is one thing God has promised:

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:11-13 KJV)

This was written to those in captivity, longing for their return to Jerusalem.  A few verses earlier, God warned about listening to the wrong people -- even told them no to listen to their dreams:

For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed. (Jeremiah 29:8 KJV)

We must take care to keep a close relationship to God in order for us to know whether we are following our own dreams, or keeping to the path God has laid out for us.  He does look out for His own – here’s what He had to say about His people when they thought they were forsaken:

But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. (Isaiah 49:14-16 KJV)

Beyond the specific mention of Zion, the Bible speaks to us individually regarding what He provides:

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. (1 Corinthians 10:13 KJV)

There is strong temptation to follow scientific investigations that make assumptions that God does not exist, that the universe continually recreates itself, that there was no time when there was no time. An endless, senseless continuity that has no time for us and no meaning for our lives.  Yesterday we looked at Solomon, as The Preacher, search for more than this vanity. I accept Solomon’s answer.

So – when asked, “Where is God?” my answer is, “Where ever you place Him in your life."