To Be Where You Are

 

M

y visits home are few and far between.  Instead of living just across town, I now live some one thousand miles away.  Instead of a five-minute drive, it’s a two-and-a-half-hour plane ride. But my parents and I speak every day, and we keep up with each other.  However, the desire to be where they are is sometimes overwhelming and pulls on me greatly.  There is no substitute for a warm hug, and a computer screen, despite its wonderful capabilities, cannot bridge the distance between us.  There’s just nothing like being where they are. 

 

My mother speaks about my father in these terms.  If he is working in the yard, she is there.  If he is watching television, she is there with him and if he decides to take a trip to the garden, it’s not long until she is headed in that general direction.  Now don’t get me wrong, mom is very independent, but she goes where my dad goes because she wants to be where he is.  I have heard her tell him over and over again, “I just want to be where you are!” 

 

What if we, as God’s people, just wanted to be where He is? What if we followed Him everywhere just because we longed for His presence?  This was exactly the situation facing Moses in Exodus 20. Let’s take a look at this brief passage of Scripture and see what it meant for Moses to be where God was. 

 

Exodus 20:21 simply reads, “The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.”  There are two great applications to be found in Moses’ actions here.  First, notice that the people remained at a distance.  For whatever reason, the world around us remains at a distance.  It is not interested in following God today and those of us who would be where He is must leave the crowd behind, stepping out on our own, leaving all behind to follow Him. 

 

Next, Moses entered the “thick darkness where God was.”  The Scriptures tell us that God is light and that even the darkness is light around Him.  However, in order to stand in the presence of His light, we must sometimes enter the thick darkness where there is no one, save God, Himself.   

 

There are so many areas of life that are dark.  We experience the darkness when loved ones die, when illness comes, when finances are strained, when jobs are unsure, and when the way ahead is completely blocked.  It is at times like these that we must, as Moses did, enter the thick darkness where God is.  The darkness cuts us off from all that would distract us from His presence and the blessings He has in store for us.  Moses entered the darkness just to be where God was.  Are you where He is today?