Omnipresent

I work with preschoolers. They are crazy, but they often say or ask something really profound.

Tuesday was one of those days for me. A little girl showed me a picture from the Bible Stories book, a picture portraying the story of the Good Samaritan. My Man #3 story. The compassion story. (A theme of my life it seems.) The little girl excitedly asked me to tell the story. A new girl, who has never heard the story before, joined our little circle.

She stared, eyes wide, as I told her that TWO men “walked on by” without helping the hurt man. We talked about compassion again, what it means, and how God shows us compassion and wants us to show compassion to others. The new girl asked quite seriously, “So where is God exactly?”

“In Heaven,” a sweet girl answered.

“And in your heart if you ask Him,” I added.

A few minutes later, the new girl was off playing- and the sweet girl said to me, “So how can God be in so many places at the same time??”

She was very curious. She’s a pretty quick girl for her age, so I told her that I had a huge word to teach her, that I knew she would understand: Omnipresent.

“Ooomniiipresent,” she said back slowly.

“Yes,” I said, “that big word means that God can be everywhere, all at the same time. He’s in Heaven and your heart and at the beach and at Mommy’s job and in your house! Pretty cool, huh? God is the only one who can do that all at the same time.”

She looked at me, with eyes that looked genuinely and perfectly happy.

One of the teachers asked me to pick out a book to read later. I grabbed a kiddie book on Jonah.

I read that Jonah didn’t want to obey God because he wanted the people of Nineveh to be punished (how anti-compassion!) so he tried to hide from God. He got on a boat, going the opposite direction. He even got swallowed by a whale. But he couldn’t get away from God. Because God is everywhere. 

Yes, in Nineveh. 

Yes, on the boat. 

Yes, in the dark belly of the whale.

The sweet girl’s face lights up. She blinks and sits a bit straighter. She looks at me- and I can see that she gets it.

Omnipresent.

The kids share what they learned from our Jonah story. They said simple (and a few non-Jonah-related) things. But they shared how God is always with us and that He loves us.

And in just a few minutes’ time, we changed gears. We ate snack and watched The Lion King.

But my heart is still in that moment. 


And though I've heard the story of Jonah more times than I can count, it's different this time. Usually it's, Oh, God sees us wherever we are and He knows if we're bad... But instead I'm thinking, Even at my lowest, God's there. Even if I were in the belly of a whale, God's Perfect Love would reach me. 


I can't escape it, and I wouldn't want to.

Omnipresent. He is here. 

He is in my heart, home, car, and workplace.

He is (I pray) in yours.

He is in the busy city.

He is in the tiny, undiscovered tribe.

He is in a genuine “I’m sorry.”

He is in a leap for joy.

He is in the compassion-tears.

Omnipresent. He is here and there, at the same time.

God is in these moments, always showing us and teaching us and bringing growth.

He is omnipresent, always with me, always with you. 

"Am I a God who is only close at hand?” says the Lord. “No, I am far away at the same time. Can anyone hide from me in a secret place? Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and earth?” says the Lord.

~Jeremiah 23: 23-24