by Elder Mike Chon

As my children begin to understand more about God they of course have many questions. One of the questions that seem to come up often these days is in regards to God’s omnipresence. The conversation usually goes like this:

• Child: “Dad, where is God?”
• Dad: “God is everywhere.”
• Child: “How is He everywhere?”
• Dad: “Because He’s spirit and He’s God.”
• Child: “Is there more than one God? Or is he really fast that He can be everywhere?”
• Dad: “No, there is only one God. But He is everywhere.”
• Child: “Is He in China?”
• Dad: “Yes, everywhere, at the same time. He is even here and there.”
• Child: “Wow, that’s cool.”

One thing that I appreciate about children is their appreciation for the greatness of God. Even though it is difficult for them to grasp the fullness of God at this young age, they understand that God is great. They understand that God is nothing like anything in this world. They are always amazed by these characteristics of God that makes Him greater than anything they can ever imagine, even the superheroes in comic books. It reminds me of how excited I was when I first became a believer and as I read through the pages of Scriptures to understand the character of God. Every time I read the Scriptures I was so excited to share with someone what I just read because it amazed me how infinite and powerful our God is. But something strange happened, the more I read and the more I understood the less excited I became. The only times I would really get excited anymore is when something trivial or obscure was brought to my attention regarding God or the Scriptures. I began to get too familiar with God. How can a finite man, who has been saved from the eternal wrath of God, who depends on our sovereign God to provide every breath and heartbeat get too familiar with the sustainer of the universe?

Unfortunately my experience with God is all too common in churches today. You don’t have to go too far to find churches trying to enhance and artificially excite church attenders on any given Sunday. Is this really what God meant when He calls us to his throne? Is this what it means to experience God? When I became a believer I was excited with the God of the Bible, not the music, lights, drama or some other entertainment that occurs in a church building. Instead of meeting the God of the Bible in worship during a church service, people are meeting the god of their unfulfilled idol of entertainment disguised as a spiritual experience. If you don’t bow down in reverence and awe at the greatness of God as you mediate upon the words of Scripture then I can probably say that you don’t know the God of the Bible. There is nothing in this world that can compare to the greatness of our God, no drama, no music, no inspirational speech, and definitely no superhero can ever replace the pure Word that allows us to know the great God of this universe.

Are you in awe of God? As you read about creation in the first chapter of Genesis, do you reflect on the omnipotence of God? When you read about the parting of the Red Sea, bringing out water from a rock, a talking donkey, defeating Goliath with one small stone, an axe head that floats, God becoming man, Jesus dying on the cross for your sins and resurrecting in three days, do these things sound too familiar or do they bring you to worship our one and only God in reverence and awe? As I am reading through the first few books of the Bible I have been reacquainted with the greatness of God that I sometimes take for granted. My children remind me almost daily how infinite and incomprehensible our God is by their reaction to all that God did and continues to do in our lives. May we never get too familiar or forget that we worship a great God who has revealed Himself in the pages of Scripture.