Groping for God
[Paul said,] “God made all peoples to inhabit the whole earth … so that they would search for God and perhaps fumble about for God and find God—though indeed God is not far from each one of us. For ‘In God we live and move and have our being.’” – Acts 17:26-28 (NRSVUE, adapted)
Who among us has not spent frantic minutes (or hours) looking for our glasses or our keys or our phone—only to discover that they were on our head or in our hand the entire time?
The apostle Paul says our search for God is like that. While we’re tearing the house apart looking for what we already have, while we’re searching for meaning as if it’s not right in front of us, the Holy One is forever lighting flares and sending us love notes, just waiting for us to notice.
God has given rise to every good thing—babies and bald eagles, bird song and gospel music, lovers and friends, asparagus and tomatoes, community and diversity, solidarity and resistance, a capacity for healing, soup kitchens and hugs and so much more—just so we can experience, enjoy, and maybe even know capital-L Love.
The good news is that God wants to be found by us—and that her heart aches for us even as we litter our lives with all that is not God.
We are too often like fish, swimming in an ocean of God’s love and not even realizing it. Perhaps we could stop our anxious paddling and roll over and just float for a while, enjoying the view.
Prayer
God who is love, may we never stop groping for you. And even when we find you, may we never consider our search complete.
About the AuthorVicki Kemper is the Pastor of First Congregational, UCC, in Amherst, Massachusetts, and a spiritual director.