Where is God?

I cannot remember where I read this but it makes so much sense to me: “God does not change but our perceptions of him do.” Our images or ideas of God do indeed change given enough time and changing circumstances. God cannot be permanently contained within the containers we have previously built for him.

Paul Tillich once wrote: “We must abandon the external height images in which the theistic God has historically been perceived and replace them with internal depth images of a deity who is not apart from us, but who is the very core and ground of all that is.” Tillich preferred to image God as the “Ground of all being.” It’s my favorite image of God as well—yet even that may change.

So, where is God?

Many seem to be rethinking their ideas of where God is located. Most significantly, the old ideas of God being located in some far away heaven are being disputed. The conventional theism of former days is giving way to a God who is closer to us than we are to ourselves.

You ask: “What is conventional theism?” Well conventional theism perceives God as being distant, out there, up there, far away, living in some celestial realm. According to this more traditional view God is in heaven, heaven being a location that exists somewhere above our three-tiered universe (heaven, earth, hell—in that descending order).

This is God who rules from above, overlooking his creation from an exalted position. Many today still accept the idea of God sitting on his heavenly throne ruling the creation from far away. How many times have we heard folks say that their prayers have been offered up to God (meaning heaven)? This is the God to whom I prayed as a young boy. This is conventional theism.

This was also the same God I feared because he judged harshly, from his heavenly throne, those who broke his rules or misbehaved in ways that offended him (like me not capitalizing all the personal pronounces I’m using when I refer to God in this article). This was the God I hid from under the covers as a little boy fearful that he was going to reach down and grab me for being a bad boy that day.

Now this image of God still works for lots of people; it worked for me for most of my adult life. But something is happening in our world today in which people are rediscovering a God who is much closer, much more connected to us than we previously thought, and much more intimate than we once believed.

God is the God of all creation. He is in the air we breathe although he is not the air; he is in the soil we work but he is not the soil. He is in the splendor of an early morning sunrise or an evening sunset but he is neither of those things. He is in the beauty of freshly bloomed flower but he is not that flower. He is present in a two thousand year old Sequoia but he is not that tree. He is in the gaze of a loving pet but he is not that pet. God is present in all that is but all that is does not fully contain nor define him.

Have I given you a splitting headache yet? Stay with me now.

God is indeed the Holy Other but not in terms of location. God does not come down to us from heaven but rather reveals himself from within his creation. I realize this is difficult for many to get their minds around, but once you see it you can’t unsee it.

He is Emmanuel, meaning: “God with us.” My old theology professor used to say that God is both “transcendent and immanent.” Transcendent meaning that he is distinctively different from his creation (Holy Other) and imminent meaning that he is also relationally involved in the creation. This image of God does not locate him “out there” or “up there” but “right here” in our midst.

Here’s my point: Our images of God cannot be freeze dried to last for all of time. God cannot be contained in our own constructions of him no matter how orthodox we think they are. Our images of God may work for us for an entire lifetime, but then again they may not.

I close with the words attributed to the Apostle Paul when he preached to the philosophers in Athens:

“For ‘in him we live and move and have our being’”

Indeed he is!