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January 20

God the Sustainer

While we have made a dichotomy between the natural world, as the world of science, and the spiritual world of faith, our Christian forebears made no such distinctions. God is above, but also in all things.

Sadly, we moderns have become terribly reductionistic. Things of God and of faith have largely been relegated to the private sphere of life and to the sanctuary. All else has been relegated to the secular sphere of life.

Neither the biblical story nor our Christian foremothers and forefathers support such a view. In fact, the opposite is the case. God as the creator and sustainer of the universe and of our world is involved in all things. No sphere of life is outside of God’s love and concern.

St. Patrick, reflecting an Irish spirituality of God in the midst of all the daily activities of life, writes: “He inspires all things, he quickens all things, he is over all things, he supports all things.”20

This is a wonderful vision of life. God’s Spirit at work in nature. God’s Spirit renewing our inner life. God’s Spirit sustaining and empowering the church. The Spirit at work in families and social institutions. God’s presence everywhere working unseen and mysteriously to sustain, renew, and bring goodness and love.

We will need new eyes of faith to see such things. But the biblical story and the inspiration of the Spirit can give us such a new vision. And such a vision can provide a new impetus to the contemporary church in its witness to the world.

Thought

If God is not nowhere, then God is everywhere.