But will God really dwell on earth with humans? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! – 2 Chronicles 6:18

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 14, 2019): 2 Chronicles 6

Apparently, in the Philippines, it is believed that you should not take a bath after three o’clock on Good Friday. And if you do, then evil will fall on the household. And so, every Good Friday, there are myriads of good Filipino mothers screaming at their children that, at least on this day, baths have to be finished by three o’clock (and I am assuming a follow-up command that they should not do anything after three o’clock that would get them dirty again.) I am not sure of the roots of this belief, but it is an exciting connection between Christianity’s Holiest Day and a cultural superstition. Jesus died for our sins, but apparently that sacrifice might be made null and void by a dirty six-year-old in a bathtub on Good Friday afternoon.

Superstitions are not unknown within the Christian Church. Don’t place any other book on top of the Bible. That was a lesson I learned as a young child, and still mindlessly obey decades later even though I don’t think that there is any biblical injunction that demands this kind of behavior. Or maybe it is that we are closer to God inside a church than we are anywhere else. Spoiler alert, God inhabits every corner of our world. Many of our actions seem to be only marginally biblical, and majorly based on some superstition, although we do take great strides to argue in the opposite direction.

Solomon openly questions that if the heavens could not contain God, then how could the Temple that he had built keep him in one place? And we are glad that Solomon makes this statement. Because up until now it often seems that Solomon might be believing the idea that God inhabits the Temple to the exclusion of every other place on earth; that somehow the Temple that his father had dreamed of really could contain God. But God is not held by our brick and mortar walls.

And while we are on the subject, God is not contained by our religious services or rituals either. I am not saying that going to church, partaking in communion, being anointed for healing, or getting baptized are not worthwhile activities. I believe that they are. But the truth is that it is not just in those activities where God can be found. He is with you Monday as you head for work, and he is with you when you fight with a co-worker on Tuesday, and maybe with your spouse on Thursday. The Psalmist got it right;

Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you (Psalm 139:7-12).

There is no place that we can go where God cannot find us. He is looking for us before we even know that we want him. And that is a good thing. 

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 7