What Is Omnipresence?

God's omnipresence means that God is always present with His creation. His creation can never flee from Him or hide their faces from Him. Wherever God's creation is, so is God. This is slightly different from suggesting that God is literally in everything. To suggest that God is literally everywhere further suggests that God is everything. After all, if God were everywhere, it would mean that He is in our chicken sandwiches, in our blood, and in our computers.

This mentality would then suggest that everything is God. That is wrong. The Bible clearly distinguishes between the Creator and the created. This world was created, God was never created. God exists with His creation; He doesn't exist expressly inside of it.

More importantly, God alone is omnipresent. No other being possesses this quality. Satan cannot be everywhere at once, nor can his demons, nor can angels be every present. Only God possesses this unique ability. This attribute of God should give us comfort. He is with us in every trial and circumstance. John MacDuff writes, "In my seasons of sadness and sorrow and loneliness-when other  comforts and comforters have failed-how sweet to think, 'My God is here! I am not alone.'"

God loves His creation immeasurably. Because of His great love for us, He always wants to be with us. But His love isn't just limited to loving humanity as a whole, in the same manner that we might love a football team or a type of food. He loves each of us specifically. God doesn't desire a relationship with the species of mankind, but with the individuals who make it up.

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Why We Can Bear Sorrow

Why can we bear sorrow? Because God is always with us. Now, everyone has been sad at tone point or another. We might be sad when we get in trouble at school, or if our eleven-year-old pet turtle suddenly die. Sadness comes for a variety of reasons, and God will be there for us when we are sad.

Still, sadness, just like happiness, is very circumstantial. It is easy to move from being mad to happy to sad in a relatively short amount of time, with relatively small and insignificant triggers. Sorrow is different from simply being sad. Sorrow is an incredibly deep distress that impacts the very core of who we are.

God is always with us, even in our sorrow! In our pain, God is not only right there with us, but He weeps with us. Furthermore, as painful as sorrow is, it still can bring purpose to our lives. Gardiner Spring says, "It is the mission of sorrow therefore to take the mourner by the land, and lead him to the throne of heavenly grace.... These sharp distresses would be overwhelming but for free access to the Hearer of prayer. We can bear them, if God is with us."

Everything that exists, exists because God created it: this includes sorrow. Sorrow is an emotion that most people would probably rather not have to experience. Nonetheless, it powerfully brings us back to the God of power and grace. Sorrow forces us to come humbly before our God who declares, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted" (Matt. 5:4).

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