Where in the World Is God?

The word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it” (Deuteronomy 30:14).

A crucial question plagues the world today: “Where in the world is God?” The skeptics put it this way: “Where in the world is God, anyway?” For them the tragedies and perplexities of life are just too overwhelming. They can’t make any sense out of it—how a God who is supposedly good and all powerful could allow such things to happen. In fact, they’re not at all sure that there is a God.

But for those of us who are embarking on a Lenten journey this Ash Wednesday, it’s not a question of the existence of God—it’s simply a matter of where we can get in touch with God. The problems of life and the nagging burden of sin make this question an urgent one. We all need to know: “Where in the world is God? How can we contact him?” 

There’s nothing we human beings would rather do than climb up into heaven to get the straight scoop from God. But this arrogant idea that we can get in touch with God through our own power ignores the fact that there is a great barrier between God and man: the wall of sin built by man himself. That wall is so high and so strong that no human effort can penetrate it. That’s why it’s so laughable that people would even talk about coming to God under their own steam.

But, though we could not come to him, he has come to us. God, the creator of the whole universe, came down to planet earth. He came in lowly weakness, clothed in human skin and bones. And even though it meant death—even a horrible death on the cross—he humbled himself so that he could take all our guilt on himself and remove forever the barrier of sin.

This is the God we have. He comes into this world to rescue us. He shoulders his cross and carries our sin in his own sinless body and then ultimately dies our death. Remarkable, isn’t it? This God of ours will stop at nothing to give us his love.

Where in the world is God? We have a God who comes down to meet us in the word of his gospel. Even to touch and handle the living flesh of Jesus is not beyond our reach, for he condescends to attach his word of promise to the earthly elements of bread and wine. And in that Word made visible, we have the sign and seal of our redemption and the encouragement to faith and hope and love. “For you,” he says to every weary soul weighed down by sin and plagued by trial, “for the forgiveness of your sin.” The real presence of Jesus in his Holy Supper is not some dry doctrine, but living reality. We have his Word on it.

Where in the world is God? Not far away. In the precious gospel of Jesus, his Son, he is in your mouth and in your heart, throughout this Lenten journey, and even into eternity.

Prayer:

Jesus, I will ponder now on your holy passion.
With your Spirit me endow for such meditation.
Grant that I in love and faith may the image
cherish of your suffering, pain, and death
that I may not perish. Amen.

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