It's been one of those weeks. Our family's been hit with one medical crisis after another. One in the Northeast, one in the Southwest, one in the Midwest. Phone calls, e-mails and texts have been flying back and forth across the country as we've tried to keep up with each others' emerging diagnoses and treatments.
The emergencies have involved the families of all three of our children. On one day, at exactly the same hour, one of our children was undergoing an important diagnostic test to explain some unrelenting pain, a two-year-old grandchild was being tested to explain some recent scary incidents, and our four-year-old grandchild was beginning life-impacting emergency surgery. Did I mention it was a tough week?
But we took great comfort in one of the most amazing things about the God we've trusted with those we love. He is, in the words of the theologians, "omnipresent." He's able to be everywhere at the same time.
When I was in Bible classes, "omnipresence" was on a grocery list of God's characteristics that we had to memorize. "If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your hand will hold me fast" (Psalm 139:9-10).
When your family is scattered across the continent and all needing what only God can give, His omnipresence is the foundation of your hope. The Most High God was simultaneously with one loved one in a Midwestern diagnostic lab, another in a Southwestern doctor's office, and still another in a Northeastern operating room. And He's not just there. "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear..." (Psalm 46:1 - KJV).
And we didn't fear. Because ultimately our loved ones weren't in some doctor's hands. They were in the all-powerful hands of Almighty God. He decides the outcomes for His children. Case closed.
It's His "everywhere-ness" that has made it possible for Jesus to keep His awesome promise to every one of His followers, everywhere in the world, every minute of the day - "I am with you always" (Matthew 28:20). It was not a cheap promise. It took giving His life on a cross. Because "your iniquities (sins) have separated you from your God" (Isaiah 59:2). We're away from God, on our own in the universe. Except Jesus paid our sin-bill with His blood. So now He can be "with us always." Amazing.
As a precious grandchild was wheeled into an operating room where none of us could go with him, this anchor promise was rock to stand on: "He tends His flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart" (Isaiah 40:11). Where it says "lambs," you can insert the name of any lamb of yours. We sure did.
I recently heard a spellbinding African-American pastor tell about his mother's real-life theology. He said: "My Mama probably can't even say the word omnipresent. But she sure does know what it means. She just says, 'God is so big that no matter where He goes, He just keeps running into Himself.'" Amen.