And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet He is actually not far from each one of us, for “in Him we live and move and have our being.” Acts 17:26
Marco is busy posting pictures on Facebook of his journeys across the face of the earth. He has a particular eye for the distinguishing detail, the twisted dreadlock, the lone flower pushing its way through the weeds, and especially the small child...red and yellow black and white.
He has one album entitled “Story at the temple” in which a child is being instructed carefully how to hold his incense and how to kneel and bow down by his loving parents.
So here Paul is proclaiming the “God-shaped hole in our hearts,” the purpose for which we were created, to seek His face, to a people worshipping the unknown.
And it is not always a clear and easy journey. Job, a blameless and upright man who feared God complained, “Behold, I go forward, but He is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive Him; on the left hand when He is working, I do not behold Him; He turns to the right hand, but I do not see Him. Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come even to His seat!”
And God knew this from the beginning of time. He knew that He would create very good, and yet it would get broken, and that the journey back to restoration would be painful, costly, especially to Himself. But the intentionality is built into the very subatomic fiber of matter, the balance of brokenness and repentance, of destruction and renewal, of death and life. It is the story.
“Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.
The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.
Indeed.
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