Presence

When C.S. Lewis lost his wife Helen, he felt the agony of bereavement. In *A Grief Observed*, he wrote:

*"Meanwhile, where is God? This is one of the most disquieting symptoms... But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence."*

The absence of his wife, compounded by the sense that God was absent too. Devastating. We've all felt that God is gone. There are seasons in my life when I wondered why God seemed distant. Haven't you? This pain can be one of the greatest difficulties of our lives.

In Psalm 88, we read: "O LORD, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me?"

Yes, we are estranged from God. But God's Spirit is at work within our spirit to make us like Christ. Like a shepherd who searches for his lost sheep, God is compassionately pursuing us.

**How can we get close to God? No human activity could accomplish this on its own. But because God is already with us, his presence is a gift that we receive.**

Consider Exodus 3:1-15. God appears to Moses as a fire in a little bush! What a humble, insignificant manner for the revelation of God's divine presence! Yet it shows God's identification with his enslaved people. He condescends to meet us in a way appropriate to our capacities, because he cares for us.

Jesus taught his disciples, "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth... But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you."

**The Triune God has made himself at home within his people.**