“Here is your God.” A very simple sentence, but what depths it opens up to us, if we are open to it. Isaiah writes: “Here’ is your God,” not ‘there’ is your God. The implication of this simple word is profoundly important to our understanding of God and our relationship to God. God is ‘here’, not there. He is present in all of His Creation. Everything in Creation, including each one of us, takes its being, its very existence, in every moment, from God. All that is visible and invisible was created by God, and exists because God remains present to it now, in this moment. He is ‘here’ with me as I write, and with you as you read.
Think of that, long and hard. Let me give you an example of what I am saying here. Recently, I was sitting by the waterfront in my little town along the eastern shore of Puget Sound. It was a beautiful, sunny, late Spring morning. The water was almost flat, the air still and silent but for the mewing of seagulls and the cheery calls of Spring-charged birds. A movement caught my eye as I gazed out over the waters of the Sound. It was a single, pure white seagull gliding gracefully through the bright blue sky out over the water. The thought suddenly occurred to me that that seagull and all of the magnificent beauty of the snow-covered mountains across the Sound on the Olympic Peninsula, and Mt. Baker to the north, the sea, indeed, all the beautiful things I could see and hear, were being held intimately, in that moment, in the mind of God. He was “here”. He was present to it all, and to me, in that moment…as he is to every moment and place.
Here is your God. He is not just present, but intimately present, to every moment, in every place. Could this be one of the meanings that might come to mind whenever we hear Jesus say, “Be not afraid.” He tells us, “And remember that I am always with you until the end of the age” (Mt. 28:20). Is this not what the Spirit was communicating through the prophet Isaiah hundreds of years before Christ? Listen now to what God can do for us, especially in those moments of struggle and strife where we are most challenged, vulnerable, or lost.
If we but believe, we can be confident that when we call on Him, He will “Strengthen the hands of the feeble, make firm the knees that are weak, say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not” (Is. 35:3-4)! He is here. He is always here. Right here! Right now! We are never out of His presence. To know this, and to believe it, is immensely important for us to contemplate. At any moment, in any place, we can take time to sit with him in prayer. Whenever we turn away from Him, He remains present to us, always ready to welcome us back when we come to our senses, repent of our sin, and turn back to Him. He forgives us readily and will generously give us the graces we need to make the difficult journey back to the narrow path we are meant to walk.
It is He who has made that path available to us. “A highway will be there, called the holy way; no one unclean may pass over it, nor fools go astray on it” (v. 8). What a terrifying word, and what a comforting word this is. Those who consciously and wilfully turn away from God and his way will not be able to find it or to walk on it. But even a fool, a humble, flawed fool, if he or she keeps his or her eye on God, cannot go too far astray from it. Isaiah goes further and tells us that this highway, this path, “is for those with a journey to make, and on it the redeemed will walk. Those whom the Lord has ransomed will return and enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy; they will meet with joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning will flee” (vs. 9-10).
Isaiah tells us this, too: “Behold, I have inscribed your name on the palms of my hands” (Is. 49:16). Hear this! God is here! Right now! Each one of us is presently held in the mind of God. We are held in the palms of his hands. He knows us by name, but even more deeply, he knows our hearts. He knows our intentions, our thoughts, even before they reach our tongues. He is our most intimate friend and lover in all moments.
Because of this, if we desire it with all our hearts, we can indeed have a profoundly personal relationship, a deep and abiding relationship with God. Yes, He is our judge as well. But His judgments are rendered out of love and mercy. In good times and in bad, all that is necessary for us to return to, or to deepen this relationship, is for us to consciously, willingly, and humbly place ourselves in His presence. Be still. Be quiet. Listen! Listen as if all that is real and important depended upon it. He who is the Ground of Being, the source and goal of all reality, is ‘HERE’.
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