DAILY DEVOTIONAL – November 18, 2020
“Closer…Closer…”
Prayer: You are amazing God, in all of Your ways and in all of who You are. We rejoice in awe of Your being, and thank You that we can know You and see You as we look to Your Son, Jesus Christ. It is in His name that we pray. Amen.
Devotion – “Closer….Closer….”
One of the great mysteries about God that I often find myself lost in thought over, is God’s nearness to us. Some of the most beautiful passages in Scripture are ones that describe how massive God is, and how He is everywhere all the time; what we call in theology His omnipresence.
Through the prophet Jeremiah God reveals His Lordship over the farthest unseen and unknown reaches of the universe as the Creator of time and space saying in 23:23-24, “Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? 24 Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?” declares the Lord. “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” declares the Lord.
In Psalm 139:7-12, King David marvels fearfully in awe of God’s inescapable dominion saying,
“Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.”
Through the prophet Isaiah, God humbles us and comforts us with His presence when He says in Isaiah 57:15, “For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.’”
By simply being God, God is always present everywhere, and as David said, there is no place we can go where He is not. And yet, God has come even closer to us. How does an omnipresent God become even more present? By revealing His presence visibly, by localizing His presence, by coming to us personally in a way we can understand and not be completely overwhelmed, and by putting His very Spirit into our hearts delivered to us in baptism and through faith in the blood of Christ, the Lamb of God who was slain to take away our sin and shame and make a way in our hearts to receive the nearness of the Spirit of God.
Colossians 1 says, “15 He [Jesus Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”
Every time I read that passage from Colossians my mind fights against itself. One side of my mind struggles to grasp the beautiful mystery of Christ, and the other side rejoices in my God who is infinitely bigger than I could ever fathom and who still comes so close as to breathe our air, eat our food, suffer our pain and die our death so that through the love of God revealed in Christ we would know and be known by God – that we would live in Him and that He would live in us.
A boy asked his father: “Dad! how big is God?”
The father took a minute to think about how to answer. While he was thinking he heard an airplane overhead, and got an idea. He told his son, “God can be big or small son.” “How can something be both big an small?” his son asked.
Looking to the sky, the father pointed to the airplane and asked his son, “Do you see that airplane in the sky, son? How big is that airplane?” The son replied : “It looks really small, dad, I can barely see it! It’s really high.”
The next day the father took his son to an air museum where they had a big airliner on display. It would be the first time his son would see a plane close up. “That’s the same plane you saw flying in the sky yesterday son.” The boy replied in amazement, “Dad, it’s huge. Wow! Sooooo big!”
The father then said, “That’s kind of how it is with God, son. The closer you are to God, the bigger and more amazing He gets.”
Be always coming closer to God, my friends, and be amazed at how huge He is and how unbelievably powerful His love is for You in Jesus. Remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today, and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
