All of our lives have been impacted by this pandemic. From the cancellation or reworking of work, school, social engagements, church services, and simplicities like shopping for necessities, we are left within the walls of our own homes, wondering where all of those things went.
We know the answer to that question and we understand the reasoning behind it. We ask it because we remain in complete awe of what is happening around us. Amid that awe, there is another question, a question I have heard asked outright and have seen concealed within words of anguish, perplexity, and distress:
Where did God go?
Did He flee before the first confirmed case in China? Did He sneak away in the night as the virus passed through Europe? Did He shut himself off from our country as our people were invaded by COVID-19?
Where did He go?
The answer is both nowhere and everywhere.
Truly, I don’t believe that’s the question we should be asking. There is a question that is housed in a deeper place within our hearts, a question that forces us to be uncomfortable because it calls us to discover why we are asking it. It is a question that requires an individualized answer from each of us:
Why do we place limits on God?
Why do we believe that He is unable or does not wish to exist in the midst of something so traumatic, so damaging, so painful?
The answer to that question helps us to understand why we ponder the first. We place limits because it is our nature, because it feels comfortable and safe. We believe we can understand something if it can be put in a box, and if it is in a box we know where it is if we wish to find it and we know how to separate ourselves from it if we don’t.
God is not human. He cannot be put in a box. He does not flee, He does not sneak away, He does not shut Himself off from His children. He is able and not only does He wish to exist in the midst of trauma, damage, and pain, He shines there.
God never left.
He is still proclaiming Truth and comforting hearts; He is just doing so on the side of the church building instead of from within it.
He is still exuding joy through His littlest sheep; He is just doing so through Zoom call scavenger hunts instead of crafts drenched in giggles in the kids’ ministry rooms.
He is still providing faithfully for his children; He has just altered the method by which He does so.
He is still delighted to hear His children’s supplications; He just assembles them through a prayer line instead of around a table.
He still gathers His children; He just does so individually, customizing the time He shows His heart to each of them.
God never left.
He quieted the noise, He cancelled all of the things we added to Him to make it “better” or “more attractive.” He left us with just Himself.
Despite church buildings being closed, services and programs being canceled or reworked, despite the physical segregation of His people,
He still is.
No virus, no anguish, no perplexity, no distress, no unbelief can remove God from His Creation. What those things can do, though, is further exalt Him.
And exalted, He is.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior
Isaiah 43:2-3a