Sunday Reflection–Where is God?

When they go with their flocks and herds to seek the Lord, they will not find him; he has withdrawn himself from them. (Hosea 5:6)

In the verse above, Israel has sinned against God and withdrawn from him.  Hosea prophesies that God has withdrawn from them.

Sometimes it can seem that God withdraws from us.  That thought comes from a reflection on what Betty and I have been through together over the past several years. 

It started with Betty’s horse riding accident that laid her up in the hospital for six days and took six months to recover.  Shortly after her recovery she had an acute appendicitis attack.  After her surgery she came down with a bacterial infection that took a couple of months to get over. A year later she came down with a severe case of shingles which again took months to get over. Finally, last fall I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and had prostate surgery.  It took three months for me to finally recover from that.

Where was God in the midst of all this over the past four years?  Some people might say that God had withdrawn his presence from our lives.  I don’t believe that.

God’s presence in our lives doesn’t mean we won’t experience life’s ups and downs – especially the downs.  If God protected us from the things we’ve gone through over the past four years we would have been living our lives in a cocoon. Don’t get me wrong.  It would have been nice to not have gone through all that.  But, we’re not exempt from life.  There is much to learn about life, about ourselves and about God from what we’ve experienced.

So, where was God?

God doesn’t wrap us in  Saran Wrap to protect us from life.  We live life.  God works in and through our life experiences.

Looking back it’s possible to see God’s hand in the midst of our experiences.  It started with me having my cell phone when Betty had her accident.  Then there was the great, big, single room we got at the hospital.  Then the surgeon she got was terrific.  The ambulance EMT’s who brought her home – one was a strong Christian.  Our home physical home therapist was a strong Christian.  And, on and on.

The most recent example was my cancer surgery.  Several months before that Evan and Maritsa, the two kids down the street came up to meet us because they were interested in learning more about horses.  When I was laid up during January, February and March last year Betty was able to call on them to help her clean up after the horses every day – during some bitter cold weather – and they were very faithful.

There are many other things, but I won’t take the time to detail them here.  Many people might say they are all coincidence, but we don’t.

God doesn't prevent life from happening.  He uses our life experiences to work in and through them.

Knowing that helps me to give thanks to God for all things – even having prostate cancer.