Show up!! VII

And before him no creature is hidden.

 - From Hebrews 4

It occurred to me, while reading this familiar passage, that we deliberately position ourselves somewhere, physically and geographically, based on whatever need we are feeling at every point in time. We wind up where we want to wind up.

I understand that we are required to go to school and to a job. We sometimes are required to go to a family function, or to run an errand, or mow the lawns. But still, it takes an act of our will to get there. We inwardly may protest . . . but my assertion is that we are always doing what we choose to do, for whatever reason.

The Hebrews passage talks about approaching unto the throne of grace. Move towards it. Make your deliberate life direction, towards God. The Word of God is act, and narrates the historic process of creation rushing headlong back into communion with its Creator. We can be part of that. We are part of it anyway. But we assist the process and make ourselves more functionally connected with the lifeblood of eternity, by actively engaging. 

We show up in God's presence.

We go places where we can hide. If we are not interested in being in God's presence, our response normally us to hide somewhere. But humanity, strangely, often finds the best hiding place to be in the midst of mobs of people. You are most invisible in a crowded mass. This explains the lure of cities. 

But even there, God can find you. 

We ignore the places where we automatically fit: our families and communities . . .and run away to a mass of people somewhere. Because, apparently, despite our protestations, still we yearn for the affirmation of somebody. If I turn my back on my family, I will seek a set of people that can appreciate me anyway. There is always that option, somewhere on earth.

But you can never hide. 

The throne of grace is everywhere. You can show up there just be praying and meditating on it. And that way, you have God with you no matter where you are. You do not have to run away.