ON THIS NIGHT…Where is God?

 Exodus 14: 19,20

“Then the angel of God, who had been leading the people of Israel, moved to the rear of the camp. The pillar of cloud also moved from the front and stood behind them.  The cloud settled between the Egyptian and Israelite camps.  As darkness fell, the cloud turned to fire, lighting up the night. But the Egyptians and Israelites did not approach each other all night.”

Have there been times in your life when you have asked yourself the question, “Where is God?”  Those moments when you look for Him and He is not where you thought that He was?  In these moments, we feel abandoned by God.

There are many times in my life when I have cried out, “God, where are You?”

As a young girl, our home was not what everyone thought it was. We lived the façade of life while chaos ensued behind our four walls.  Feeling the pain inside, I would often climb onto my bicycle and peddle further and further from my house to find some peace from the chaos.  I was not able to decipher the pain, so the only thing I knew to do was to escape…

Where was God?

As my health continued to worsen after battling for 13 years, the seizures were now relentless occurring twice a week leaving my body tired and lifeless. We had prayed for healing but saw no signs of it. The lesion in my brain was quickly taking away my quality of life. As we pulled into the parking garage of Mayo Clinic, my heart dropped into my stomach fearing we would not get the

answers we longed to find…

              Where was God?

When my marriage crashed, I felt the darkness of being alone.  People in my world bombarded me with guilt and shame. As I felt every layer of their shame, I found myself alone wandering on a trail close to our home.  I felt weighed down by their shame with no desire to live. I screamed out to God in my pain. But, …

              Where was God?

In our story, Maria and her mother asked the same question…” Where is God?”

As Maria and her mother stood side by side facing the sea with the Egyptian army closing in behind them, she could see fear in her mother’s eyes.  She watched her mother looked to the sky in front of them. As they looked out over the waters, the sky had gone dark.  It was void and empty.

On the nights prior to this night, the sky had shown the Israelites hope.  Every day and every night as they looked to the sky, they saw the presence of God in the form a cloud by day and fire by night. An angel of God also appeared in the sky.  But in this moment, that hope was gone.  They were now standing still as God had asked but they felt so alone as though God had abandoned them leaving them to die by the edge of the sea.

 ON THIS NIGHT, where was God?

Maria grabbed her mother’s hand as they stood in the darkness. Once again, she felt her mother’s scars on her arm.  Scars that her mother told her represented the freedom from slavery in Egypt; scars that reminded Maria of God’s amazing grace.  For the first time in little Maria’s life, she questioned their freedom and God’s grace.

Standing still in the dark, Maria looked up at her mother and asked,

              “Momma, is God gone?”

Mother looked fearfully into Maria’s eyes and said, “I don’t know Maria; I really don’t know.”

As her mother stared at the dark sky, she reached down and picked up her precious little girl holding her within her arms as though this was the final moment to have Maria’s arms wrapped around her; the final moment to smell the fragrance of her precious girl; the final moment to whisper in her ear how much she loved her. As mother held Maria tight, she could taste the salt of her tears as they streamed down her face. 

Standing still in this embrace, they could hear the frightening sounds of Pharaoh’s army approaching them from behind as the glistening of the sea laid out in front of them beckoning them to peace and safety.

As Maria’s eyes were tightly closed, she clung to her mother wrapping her fragile arms around her mother’s neck. She thought if she could keep her eyes closed, the pain of death from the Egyptian army would lessen.  As they stood there in that moment, Maria could hear the horrible cries of fear.

Then something in those cries startled her. She opened her eyes to see what it was. When she did, she did not see what she expected to see. 

In the sky behind her, she saw God.  She saw the pillar of cloud which had turned to fire and the angel of God as they were stretched out behind them covering the entire nation of Israelites so they could no longer see Pharaoh’s army. God had not left them, He simply changed positions.

ON THIS NIGHT, when Pharaohs’ army was fast approaching, God made His move. In this moment, He knew the people needed His protection, so He shifted positions. The cloud was no longer in front of them guiding them; the cloud was now behind them protecting them.

Maria began to squirm in her mother’s arms attempting to get down. As she squirmed, her mother held on even tighter.

              “Momma, it’s okay. You can let me down.  I see God. He’s here…He’s right here behind us.”

As Maria’s mother stood facing the sea, Maria was looking behind them at the amazing presence of God.

Mother then told Maria to turn around towards the sea.

              “Maria, turn around and look. I found God.  He’s right in front of us.”

As Maria turned her gaze from the pillar of cloud and angel behind them, she saw God in the sea in front of them. They stood in awe as a huge wind began to blow moving the waters in the sea to provide a dry path allowing them to escape Pharaoh’s army. 

              “Momma, God is behind us and in front of us. God is everywhere!”

                                           “You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.” Psalm 139:5

When Maria and her mother thought God had abandoned them, He showed them that He had not abandoned them, but He had surrounded them.

When they cried out to God, “God, where are You?”, He replied, “I’m right here. Just open your eyes!”

In life we often feel as though God has left us. But what if He just changed positions placing Himself strategically on our path providing protection when we need it the most? 

I can look back at the pain and suffering I felt as a child and as an adult and see that God never left me.  In those moments when I felt as though He was gone, I can see now how He had just changed positions to provide the protection I needed.

In those moments in your own life when you are asking, “God, where are you?”, maybe He simply shifted positions in order to surround you with His protection.