Space Inhabited by God

If you pay attention to labels, you will notice that I have just skipped 10 pages. I may come back to them at some later point, but in all honesty, I wasn't inspired to write much from them, so I shall continue on in my journey.

Many say that God is not in space at all, but instead is "in" the human heart. And that sounds nice, but it really does not help. "In my heart" easily becomes "in my imagination." It gives us a pretty metaphor but leaves us vainly grasping for reality.


Where does God live? If you answer "heaven", then you should probably go back and read those last 10 pages of the book for a proper understanding of what we mean when we say "heaven." Or instead, how about rephrasing the question to, "Where is God when he is answering prayers?" Where is God when he is performing miracles? Where was God when he spoke out saying, "This is my Son whom I live. With him I am well pleased." (Matt. 3:17)


Does God sit on a cloud and throw down magic spells? Does he cast lightning bolts like Zeus or apparate and disapparate like Albus Dumbledore? These are the images we've seen, and so, I think, they are the ones that come easiest to mind. God is not someone we understand. Our mind dislikes gaps. It fills them with that which is understood or at the very least familiar.

Very well. Let us look at something that is familiar.

 Roughly speaking, God relates to space as we do to our body. He occupies and overflows it but cannot be localized in it. Every point in it is accessible to his consciousness and will, and his manifest presence can be focused in any location as he sees fit.

Simple, right? Okay, not so much. But at least it is better understood than picture an invisible something somewhere inside my cardiovascular region or my head. This metaphor compares God to me, much as God compared me to him when he said he created me in his image. (Genesis 1:26)

If God inhabits space as I inhabit my body, then he really is everywhere all the time, while not being pinpointed in any one location. For instance, I know I am in my feet and my hands and my head, while simultaneously not really being at any of those places at all. I am NOT my body. I am a consciousness and a will. I inhabit my body and am in complete control of it, but it is not me.

By Willard's example, God inhabits the universe in the same way. He's everywhere. He's in mountains and lakes and trees and people. He's also in stars and nebulas and galaxies and comets. He inhabits and exhibits his will from the farthest reaches to the closest corners. This is not in a "gaia" manner of saying that God is the mountains and the water and the trees. God is not his "body". He is not the universe; he merely inhabits it.

So we should assume that space is anything but empty. This is central to the understanding of Jesus because it is central to the understanding of the rule of God from the heavens, which is his kingdom among us. Traveling through space and not finding God does not mean that space is empty any more than traveling through my body and not finding me means that I am not here.

God is both among us and around us. When we pray, we talk to a friend next door as much as a Creator King. When God acts, he reaches out from around us, from his kingdom, and he enacts his will.

Ole Hallesby points out that the air our body requires envelops us on every hand. To receive it we need only breathe. Likewise, the "air" which our souls need also envelops all of us at all times and on all sides. God is round about us in Christ on every hand. All we need do is open our hearts.

Prayer requests should not be viewed as "snail mail to the clouds", as though we need wait for God to receive it and send back a response in due time. God hears us immediately. He most likely responds to us immediately, though often it takes us time to see his response.

I have not often struggled with this understanding of God, though I have ignored it when I haven't wanted to think of God's omni-presence. We learn about it in Sunday School, but we don't often realize it in our lives. We don't put it into practice. We lift our eyes to "heaven" when heaven is right in front of us. We shoot off prayers like Hail Mary passes (ironic, I know), as though we don't have much of a chance of getting through. Meanwhile, God stands right next to us and looks at us for our attention, many times hoping for a conversation more than a supplication.

We are his creations. He cares for us. He exists with us, and we with him.

Do we live our lives that way?
Is he real in the everyday?
I pray it is so,
and I know it, although,
I can't always live out what I say.