Christian Living

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Where Can God Be?
©
by

Stephen A. Peterson


Kyley Monaghan, a three year old, like many children her age was always asking questions of her older sister, mother or grandmother. One day after leaving Christ the King Catholic Church in Indianapolis, Indiana, she asked her mother, “Mom, where is God? How come I can’t see Him?”

“God is everywhere. The reason why we can’t see God is because He’s a spirit and doesn’t need a body to do His special work,” said her mother.

Kyley thought for a couple of minutes, “Is God in this car with us?”

“Yes, He sure is!”

Shortly, Kyley and her family arrived home. Yet questions regarding God continued. “Mom, is God right here in this kitchen?”

“You bet! He’s here with us right now.”

“Is God in my grilled cheese and ham sandwich, mom?

“Yes, I guess so because God is everywhere.”

“God, will you please move away because I’m hungry now and I don’t wanna bite You and hurt You, Mr. God.”

Kyley’s questions and response to her mother’s explanations may make the listener and her mother laugh at her understanding but not at her questions. Many very young people as well as older one have similar questions. Where is God? Was God in the hurricane that blew down houses, schools, churches and businesses away in Florida? Was God in the house in Oklahoma City that burned to death a family of five and a friend? Was God around when a plane missed the runway killing more than 200 men, women and children? Where is God when a person on drugs crashes into an office building killing innocent office workers? And where is God when a young teenage girl who had publicly and privately expressed love for God and served God all of her young life is allowed to suffer and be dying from a brain tumor?

“How can anyone look at all the pain and suffering in the world and still believe there is a God?” asked another teenager. “If there is an all-knowing, all-powerful God, you have told us kids at times, then the God you say you believe in and serve is an evil monster that I can’t believe in! I hate your God!”

That teenage client and the expression they made are not uncommon. Looking at the world as many people do, they decide that there is no God and for others that if God does exist then He is a no good, powerless God who is mean! A real God, a good God does not allow all the evil and suffering to exist in the world.

Many of those who call themselves Christians are caught between their belief in God, the ugliness in the world and the ability to be able to explain how a good God would allow evil to exist. People cannot accept the idea that in His goodness with unconditional love cannot control humankind’s behavior and be God. To do so would not be love but control. Control is not an expression of love. Control is coercion. There are times when God’s goodness, presence and love are felt but there are other times when even those who call themselves Christians ask the question: “Where is God?

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