God is not missing

Sometimes we are a little messed up about God.

Most of the time it’s because of what we were taught growing up.

Once there were two mischievous young boys attending a Christian school who felt their calling was to cause chaos and pandemonium. These two boys were constantly into trouble and had made several not-so-congenial visits to the principal’s office.

After many attempts to appeal to their “higher” selves, the principal decided that what these boys needed was to have God play a more important role in their lives. So, she brought the first boy into her office. She had him sit and then she stood looking at him for a moment before she said, “I want to ask you a very serious question. Where is God?”

What kind of question was that? The boy was scared to death. He scrambled furiously for an answer and couldn’t come up with a reasonable answer that would please the principal. So he just sat there and stared down at his feet. She asked him several times, “Where is God?”

He sat in stunned stillness.

So, when the principal grew exasperated with the silence, she sent him on his way by telling him that she wanted him to think about it.

As he was leaving the office, the second boy, who had been sitting outside the office waiting anxiously said, “What’s going on in there?”

The first boy said, “I don’t know, but evidently God is missing, and they’re trying to pin it on us.”

Could God be missing?

This young man was a bit confused about God.

Maybe we all are. A little.

So often our conception of who God is, where God is and how He might be feeling is based on what we’ve been taught in church, what we’ve heard from friends or what we’ve seen in our parents.

The saddest misconception of God often comes from our parents. So many times I have sat talking with someone and heard comments like this: “My dad was demanding and demeaning. I always pictured God kind of like that. He expected me to do better, sin less. And when I failed, He was disgusted and ignored me.”

Or, I’ve heard stories like this one: “My dad was absent. He was never there. I figure that’s how God is … far away and not too concerned with me.”

We learn so much in our families of origin. Some of you were abandoned, some of you were abused, some of you were belittled, some of you were unheard and unaccepted for who you are.

And from these people you developed an image of God. Distorted, but still, it’s the picture that is burned in your mind.

But God is not distant and unreachable; he is close by.

God is not disappointed in you; he delights in you.

God is not oblivious to your sorrow; he catches your tears and stores them in bottle.

God is not a sin scorekeeper; he takes your sin and throws it as far as the east is from the west.

God is not withholding good things from you; he has plans to prosper you, give you hope and give you a future.

God is not ignoring you; he is waiting for you to call on him.

And friend, God is not missing … He is here, now, in this moment, for you.