I spent the day with my daughter last week and we ended up at Orton Park on a lovely late spring evening. After Rachel spent the better part of 30 minutes swinging on the playground, she wandered off to pick dandelions – not the fresh, yellow blooming ones mind you – but the white puffy dandelions that have gone to seed. She brought one to me and held out this weed, this thing that I so devoutly eliminate from my own lawn. She handed it to me and said: It’s so pretty daddy, isn’t it? She reminded me of a poem.
He was just a little boy, On the week’s first day.
Wandering home from Sunday School, and dawdling on the way.
He scuffed his shoes into the grass; He even found a caterpillar.
He found a fluffy milkweed pod, And blew out all the filler.
A bird’s nest in a tree overhead, So wisely placed up high,
Was just another wonder, That caught his eager eye.
A neighbor watched his zigzag course, And hailed him from the lawn;
And asked him where he’d been that day And what was going on.
“I’ve been to Bible School”, he said And he turned a piece of sod.
He picked up a wiggly worm replying, “I’ve learned a lot about God.”
“It’s a very fine way,” the neighbor said “For a boy to spend his time.
If you’ll tell me where God is, I’ll give you a brand new dime.”
Quick as a flash the answer came! Nor were his accents faint.
“I’ll give you a dollar, Mister, If you tell me where God ain’t.”
What wisdom from my little Rachel! What wisdom from the boy in that poem! You see the real question is not Where is God? Rather the question should be Where Isn’t God? And perhaps the real gift of this summer season is the chance to recall again the wisdom of these children – that God is in each moment of life and in every breath we take.
I suppose that it is simply the nature of my work that I hear people constantly asking the wrong question. They run from task to task, always running and never slowing down and their lives are this whirlwind of chaotic activity and the want to know: Where is God? They struggle with their teenagers and care for their aging parents and argue with their spouses and they cry out: Where is God? They read about the tragedies of life, the wars and disease, the tornadoes and earthquakes and they ask again and again and again: Where is God? And while I understand where the question comes from, the scriptures remind us that it’s the wrong question. The question that we should be asking ourselves everyday even in the chaos, even in the difficult relationships, even amidst the tragedies is this – Where isn’t God? Jesus was always reminding his followers that in the chaos of the world’s activity, if they looked and if they listened they would find God working with them and laboring with them. He reminded them that in all of love’s struggles and heartaches that if they looked and if they listened they could find God walking with them and guiding them. Jesus told parables reminding his followers that even in the greatest tragedies of life if they looked and if they listened they would find God crying with them and carrying a cross with them. Jesus was always trying to teach his followers that God was around them and within them.
In this beautiful season of summer breathe deeply of life; look around you at the world we have been given; listen to the sounds of earth and ask the right question – Where isn’t God?