Once when I was a little girl, I walked by the front door to our house and noticed a shaft of light shining through the little window at the top of the door. The light stretched all the way down to the floor, where it formed a nearly perfect little square.
I had never noticed that before.
I lay down on my tummy, right in the foyer of our house, and rubbed my hand on the light on the floor. Then I tried to scoop it up in my hand, holding the light like some sort of superhero.
My teacher had told us that God holds the entire universe in his hands and also cares about each one of us individually. I thought about this as I stood to line up my hands perfectly to hold the light. How could God be both so large and grand and otherworldly but also so close and tender and intimate?
Then I saw it: tiny specks of dust floating in the shaft of light. There seemed to be millions of them! How had I never seen this before? I felt like all of a sudden, I was a superhero with super-amazing vision to see such tiny, little specks of dust.
I thought again about what my teacher had said about God, and I thought of those little specks of dust as millions of people.
As I tried to wrap my tiny brain around the idea of God both holding all of us in his hands and caring about each one of us, I felt God’s presence there with me. At first it frightened me to notice him, so powerful and mighty there with me, but then I felt his goodness and love, and I was simply mesmerized.
I didn’t know it then, but God was giving me a little lesson about his transcendence—God’s presence above us, the world, and the galaxy—and his immanence, God’s presence right here among us on Earth.
Now that I am a grown-up, I think about God’s immanence often. I am amazed at how God meets each of us in very specific ways. Well, of course, he does. He knew us before we existed and in our innermost places. But I love hearing how God shows himself to my friends in ways that are so different from how he reveals himself to me. God is so very attentive to us, through a word or phrase that has a special meaning just between us, like an inside joke. Or a call from that person, the one I really needed to hear from right then. Or that sense that God is there with us in the midst of our frustration, sadness, or joy.
Just like a parent who knows chocolate is his son’s favorite flavor of ice cream or knows to turn up the volume for his daughter when a Taylor Swift song comes on the radio, God knows these details. Sometimes God uses these details just to show us how much he loves us.
God holds the universe in his hands but cares enough to let us know he’s there.
Thanks Shemaiah. Indeed God understands us. We are blessed.
Such a tender, beautiful story. Thank you Shemaiah.
Shemaiah, what a great story. You engaged me from the start. Thank you for sharing. Pat
This is so sweet and lovely, thanks for sharing your story.
Shemaiah, this resonates so well with my own experience of God stepping in when I have needed someone or something throughout my life. I get particularly excited when God nudges me to connect with someone else who needs to feel God’s presence in a special way.
Thank you and God bless!
Thank you for sharing this with me! It makes me think about how just hearing someone else’s story, sheds light on where Jesus has been present in our own! Thank you!