Another Side of Omnipresence

     Humans have complex personalities; we're a walking talking mixture of thoughts, experiences, ideals, emotions and more. We're such a mixed up jumble of stuff that we're not even sure what exactly makes up our person-hood. Even more frustrating is that our emotions and ideas seem to activate and influence us beyond any kind of conscious control. We can be happy one minute and angry the next, crying now and laughing later. Consistently fickle and always changing we are a difficult thing to understand and an even harder thing to know. Thankfully God is not like us and although we cannot hope to fully understand Him, there are things we can know about Him.

     Today's focus is on the omnipresence of God. Now that's a big fancy 'impress your friends' word that means that God is everywhere. I'm sure you've heard this before but when we say that God is everywhere we really mean everywhere! He's with you at all times, whether you want Him there or not. He see's everything and hears everything that goes on at all times and in all places both on earth and beyond. When I was a child I used to imagine a million 'Jesus's standing in every possible position in a room, which is true to the point but not really accurate of course! The really interesting part is that God exists in all locations but takes up no space (being spirit). The general idea of omnipresence is a bit of a mind-blow but today were focusing on a something a bit more specific, namely that all of God is everywhere that God is.

     You may be wondering what I meant by that last sentence. Well, let's look at it this way: a human can be only partially 'present' in a given situation if the conditions are right. If I'm sad enough, my strength or my joy may not be represented; if I'm angry enough, my love or my compassion may not be seen in my actions. If one emotion or thought is given enough heed the rest of me may be absent from my actions. A man who murders someone in a fit of rage is a good example as his mercy, restraint, and rational thought are suspended from any level of active participation in His choices at that time. Even in the best of times we tend to give certain parts of ourselves greater weight than at other times. Some of us might be more emotive than logical or vice versa in our day to day decision making

     God is different. One of the facets of His omnipresence is the fact that wherever He is (which again, is everywhere) all of Him is present. God is never so angry that He is not also loving, nor is He so loving that He is not just. God's actions are always a perfect expression of Himself and they are always the correct choice in any situation. Now we may never really understand how this works exactly but it's a simple fact that God never loses control, never loses focus, never misses any details, and is always in perfect control of Himself (not to mention everything else).

     So what does this mean? Well to me it's a great comfort to know that even if my actions make God displeased with me I know that His anger will never override His judgment or His love or His mercy. I know that His love for mankind will never override His justice or his righteousness and so those who are deserving of punishment (who do not turn to Him in repentance) will receive the due of their actions. We do not serve a God who is capricious, like the Olympian 'gods' of old, but one who is reliable and worthy of trust.