Blog #47 GOD IS EVERYWHERE

Blog #47 GOD IS EVERYWHERE All of us have gifts and talents and pleasures in our life. We are thankful to many people, relatives friends and loved ones who have given us things and love to make our lives happier and more meaningful. We show our appreciation for gifts by saying "Thank you!". We recognise the perfection of the ballplayer by cheering and applause. We praise the work of an artist. We purchase tapes of songs by men and women who sing well. But did you ever think that by merely cheering a ball player for hitting a home run or by merely praising an artist for a beautiful painting or by thanking a neighbor for a batch of beans if we stop there we are stopping short of the complete truth and joy that could be ours? The gifts and love of all around us are real, and we should appreciate them. But without God behind and within them there would be no gifts nor love nor neighbors nor reality at all other than that of God. It is not that we should not praise and appreciate all of our friends, their gifts and their love. Rather it is that we should appreciate God too, from Whom all of them come and by Whose choice and desire it is that all of them exist. As without the sun the moon would have no light so without God our friends would have no gifts to give and we would have no friends. All that comes to us, all that we know and possess is from God. The Bible tells us this. Consider the beautiful story of creation at the very beginning of Genesis. God creates heaven and earth. The earth is void and empty. God creates light, the sun the stars and the moon. God creates plants and animals mountains and seas. Finally God creates human beings and places them in charge of all that God has created. From the beginning God is shown in the Bible as one on whom everything depends, the giver of all good gifts the Father of creation. That is one of the reasons we know our prayers make sense - God is present in all of reality and nothing exists not even our thoughts without God. So when we go to God in prayer we know God is with us, knowing what we think and what we desire, blessing our awareness of His presence and receivng our thanks for everything and everyone we know and love. Appreciation of a home run is right and good but appreciation of a home run plus God is better !