The Hitchhiker’s Guide (19a): The Watcher Part 1
The eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching the evil and the good. Proverbs 15:3 NASB
Eyes of the Lord – Is God everywhere? Does He “see” everything? Answers to these questions are straightforward for most believers. The doctrine has the official title “Omnipresence.” It simply means that God is present in all His creation. There are no hiding places. Even She’ol is not an escape (Psalm 139:8). We understand the theory, but what about its application?—well, that’s a different matter.
“A clear realization of God’s omnipresence comes only with continual reflection and profound meditation. The matter is so remote from our senses that only after much study and speculation can the intellect conceive it. And even after one has come to realize God’s omnipresence, that realization tends to grow faint unless it is kept continually in mind.”[1]
Why? If God is truly present in every bit of creation, in everything we do, then every choice involves some relationship with Him, perhaps not deliberately but certainly observationally. And, of course, that means God’s feelings and His character are involved in every human act. This should lead us to agree with Luzzatto:
“When a man is convinced that, wherever he is, he always stands in the presence of God, blessed be He, he is spontaneously imbued with fear lest he do anything wrong, and so detract from the exalted glory of God.”[2]
But are we? Are we really immediately and overwhelmingly afraid that we might do something that would offend God’s honor in the next decision we are about to make? We may theoretically and doctrinally acknowledge God’s omnipresence, but does that really bear on us when we decide what pair of shoes to wear, what email to write, what kind of milk to buy? It appears that we routinely ignore His omnipresence, or perhaps not ignore but rather never really consider. We know He is always there, but we act as if it doesn’t really matter. We are indifferent to Him, even if we realize He’s watching. And indifference is the true mark of lovelessness.
I’m sure as you read this you will recognize immediately the need for a change—a heightened sensitivity to God’s presence in all you do. Perhaps you will even be afraid—for a while. But soon the sheer routine of life, the hundreds of insignificant daily details, will crowd out that divine awareness. Life will return to “normal,” that is, to the somnambulist existence we all know so well. We aren’t Brother Lawrence practicing the presence of God while doing dishes. Perhaps we should be, but things get in the way, don’t they? And that’s Luzzatto’s point. The theory of omnipresence is clear. The reality isn’t. But without the reality, nothing changes.
Step 19a: Practice omnipresence awareness.
Topical Index: Luzzatto, omnipresence, Psalm 139:8, Proverbs 15:3
[1] Moses Hayyim Luzzatto, Mesillat Yesharim: The Path of the Upright, p. 265.
[2] Ibid.
