Found

Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely spiritual you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all peoples to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps fumble about for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us.

- Acts 17: 22-27

I am aware that Acts was not written in English but oh how I love the translation “fumble about for him.” So spot-on. Makes me think of me feeling around for my glasses in the dark. I can’t see, but I can’t even see how badly I can’t see because I can’t see. Noodle on that one for a second. :)

God is not far from us, not at all. More properly stated, God is within and around us, closer than our very breath. Why fumble then? It should be easy to find God.

And it is! And it very much isn’t. We are busy people – not only busy with work and church and driving and the everyday requirements of life, but also with constant inner construction – making meaning out of this, compartmentalizing that, resisting this, explaining away that. If you are like me, it’s not quiet in your head, and you don’t always take the time to do something about it, despite the fact that the busyness within and without will make us fumble for God.

God is with us.

We might fumble for God, but God never fumbles for us. God knows right where we are – safe in the palm of God’s hand.