Learning is about knowing. Knowing what’s true or false makes a difference in life or death. While picking huckleberries in the mountains last week, I noticed abundant bright red berries beside sparse remaining dark huckleberries. Picking the wrong ones may mean life or death. I needed to know. In The ABCs of Praying for Students devotion on KNOWLEDGE, we say, “Our children need to get knowledge, but not just any knowledge.” With endless information to process, “We can’t know it all, so we discern what matters most to know.” Will Jesus be in Kindergarten? We need to know truth.
For Week #3 of the Back to School Bible Study Boost, let’s see what truth matters about a common promise we give children of all ages and ourselves. We send kids to school, camp, college, and visitations assuring them “God will be with you.” We comfort ourselves by saying, “God is with me.” Are we telling the truth? How can we know? What does the Bible say?
Everywhere in creation
The Bible tells us God is everywhere in earth and heaven. “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,” (Psalm 139:7-8). Being everywhere differs from being in everything (pantheism). He isn’t the same as creation, but He is present in every place at every time in all creation.
What places from your life can you name to finish this statement? “God is there if I am in _____ or _____ or _______ or ________. He is there.”
Everywhere in my life
Knowing God is in all places (omnipresent) comforts us when we’re alone or unsure. This belief has the power to change a childhood and our adulthood. “He is not far from any one of us,” (Acts 17:27b). The Bible communicates how God wants to be close to those He created, the people made in His image. From the first day of human kind walking in a perfect garden with God, we were made to have intimate relationship with Him. Our sin ruined that, but God offers restoration. When His Son Jesus came from heaven to earth as a flesh and blood baby, His actual name defined God’s desire to be present with us: “Immanuel, God with us,” (Matthew 1:23). To live with conviction of God’s presence in every place and part of our life would give us confidence to do life differently.
How would a daily reminder of this truth change the way you do your day?
Everywhere in my trouble
The Bible describes God with a personal nature, not a distant, uninvolved deity on high who doesn’t know, care about, or get messy with us. In the Old Testament we learn, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble,”(Psalm 46:1). Our greatest learning comes during our greatest hardships. I wish it wasn’t that way, but it is. God plans for that, letting us know, “I will be with you when you pass through the waters, and when you pass through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. You will not be scorched when you walk through the fire, and the flame will not burn you.” (Read Isaiah 43:2)
- So will God be with our child when they pass through the waters of the first day, when they pass through the river of peers, when overwhelmed by a new chapter?
- Will He be with us when we pass through the waters of unfairness, when we pass through the waters of rejection, when overwhelmed by comparison?
This “very present” quality is unchanging and reinforced in the New Testament. “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you,” (Hebrews 13:5b). When we have restored our intended relationship with God, His Spirit lives in us and stays with us. What a comfort for a child going solo to kindergarten or college or career! What a comfort for a woman facing single parenting, opposition at work, the loneliness of chronic illness, or trials she never imagined.
Even for those yet to receive a relationship with God, He is there. Present where they’re living and hurting and feeling the absence of knowing the God who made them. He is there to hear when we call, waiting to restore the relationship we need.
So are we telling ourselves and our kids the truth that God goes with them?
A.W. Tozer said, “We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God. He is nearer than our own soul, closer than our most secret thoughts.”
Yes, little one, Jesus will be with you in kindergarten. He will be with you, teenager, on the field. He will be with you, student, in the test. He will be with you, young adult, in the dorm. He will be with you, child I love, in the darkness. He will be with you as He is with me.
