Where Are You?

“Where are you?”

That was the question God asked Adam in Genesis 3:9 … after he had created him and put him in the garden to work it and keep it … after he had told him he could enjoy all the fruit of every tree in the garden except that one tree … after Adam ate of that one tree anyway and then hid himself from God’s presence in shame.

“Where are you?”

God asked as if he didn’t know, but God always knows. There is never a moment that God lacks knowledge someone else must provide. He knew where Adam was, but he asked him because he cared — because God is the God who doesn’t just know where we are but who cares about where we are, and he wants us to know that.

“Where are you?” as in I know where you are but you don’t, and you need to think about that and know that it matters to me.

And as God asked Adam so he asks us today, Where are you?

After a week of one devastating headline after another, of evil running rampant near and far, of public trust for government leaders continuing to wane, of the credibility crisis of Christians in America only worsening, of surprising setbacks that feel like a Red Sea in front of us, God cares about where you are.

What’s on your mind? What’s in your heart? God knows, but do you?

Before we gather for worship tomorrow, I encourage you to take a minute today and think about this question. Would you tell God where you are? Perhaps tell someone close to you as well? It’ll take just a little energy to reflect, and then just a couple sentences to say it.

And the point, ultimately, is that we all remember that God, sovereign and powerful beyond our wildest dreams, cares for us. Oh my, how he cares for us! He doesn’t want us to carry these anxieties. Give them to him (1 Peter 5:7). He knows our frame; he gets who we are; and he receives us with compassion (Psalm 103:13–14). What a God! What a Father! 

“Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down!” (Isaiah 64:1)