“Is God Everywhere?”
Don’t Make This Mistake When You Answer
A week or so ago I stuck God in the drain at the bottom of the swimming pool.
It happened like this. I was driving home after picking the kids up from school. We’d successfully bush-whacked through cross-town traffic, and were almost home when Addie asked, “Daddy, where is God?” But she knew the answer. She immediately followed with, “God is everywhere, right?”
“Uhh, that’s right,” I replied. My mistake. I mean, I’d have liked to nuance that some, but seemed as good an answer as anything else. After all, she’s only three and we were almost home — why argue?
“So then is God in the trees?” she asked, as we tuned into our neighborhood. “Yes,” I said, without elaborating.
Pondering that, Addie peered out the window at the neighborhood pool. “Is God in the drain in the swimming pool?” Huh. I hesitated, but given my previous affirmative responses, I couldn’t deny the logic. “Yeah, I guess if God is everywhere then God is in the swimming pool drain too.” Besides, I could see our house now.
We made it back home before following this line of inquiry further or sticking God in even less pleasant places. But it’s bothered me ever since that I so readily stuck God down there in that drain, with the collection of used band-aids and tangled hair, suffering such unflattering views of his bathing suit clad creatures.
More seriously I’m bothered because I worry I told her the wrong thing about God.
Every parent, grandparent, Sunday School teacher, minister — basically anyone who ever talks to kids about God — faces the “Where is God?” question. And even though we know that the stock answer, “God is everywhere,” is open to gross literal misinterpretation by young minds, we give it anyway. We know that God is not everywhere the same way that a person is in a house, but what better alternative do we have?
The thing is, even the very young know something isn’t quite right about that answer. That’s why we grown-ups get bombarded with the repeated “Is God really in the…?” questions. Even three year-olds can’t believe we really mean it.
I want to suggest that we use “God is everywhere” as a convenient, but misleading, shorthand for two ideas of critical importance. Neither of them are too complicated to explain to kids. In fact, we’d confuse them (and ourselves) less if we’d do so. But first we adults have to be clear about what we mean.
God is active everywhere
When we say “God is everywhere,” one of the things we mean is “God is active everywhere.” More precisely we might say, “God can act everywhere,” for there are surely places where God doesn’t act, at least not in the way we would wish. In principle though, there is no place in creation where God cannot act.
See, unlike a police officer, God is never out of his jurisdiction. Unlike a country, God has no borders to circumscribe his power. Jonah learned this the hard way when he tried to flee “from the presence of the Lord” to Tarshish and found the God of Israel active in a storm in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.
The potential domain of God’s action is unlimited. God is active everywhere.
God is available everywhere
The other thing we mean when we say “God is everywhere” is that “God is available everywhere.” Specifically, God is available to us in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given us by Christ. There is simply no place we can go where God will not be with us if we but open the door and let him in.
God is not busy hanging out among inanimate swimming pool drains. God, the source of life, is busy hanging out with those who are animated by the life of Jesus Christ. Now if one of those people is swimming at the bottom of the pool, than surely God is there with them by that drain. Like any other place on earth, it is a place where God will be with us if we call upon him. But there is nothing about the drain itself that makes it a suitable home for God.
You are a suitable home for God’s Spirit. Plastic PVC grates are not.
Jesus’ final words to his disciples in the Gospel of Matthew were, “Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20). Always. And everywhere. God is everywhere you are. God is available everywhere.
So is God in the drain in the swimming pool? Not really. Not the way I think Addie meant it or took me to mean it.
We can do better than “God is everywhere.” We can be more clear. That statement is not about the location of God’s being, but about the location of God’s action and power.
God is active everywhere. God is available everywhere.
It’s in that sense that the Psalmist writes:
If I climb up to heaven, you are there; if I make my grave my bed, you are there also. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand will lead me and your right hand hold me fast. (Psalm 139)
Yea, even at the bottom of the pool of chlorinated waters, you are with me Lord.
— Fr. Dad
St. Andrew’s Digitized Discipleship makes resources for Christian reflection, instruction, and growth available online. It is a ministry of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in McKinney, Texas.
