Especially for Older Students: Never Far Away

(10 minutes, easy set-up)
Provide a dry erase board and a dry erase marker.

Write the following figures on the board:

• One hundred billion to Two hundred billion
• 10 to the 24th (or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000)
• 7.125 billion

Direct students’ attention to the board. Ask: Can anyone guess what each of these figures means? Allow a minute or two for volunteers to guess. (Answers: One hundred to Two hundred billion = the number of galaxies in the universe; 10 to the 24th, or 1 with 24 zeros after it = number of planets in the universe; 7.125 billion is the number of people on our planet.)

Say: When we say God is omnipresent we are saying that God is everywhere—in each of the one hundred to two hundred billion galaxies; on each of the septillion planets; and actively present in the lives of each of the 7.125 billion souls walking this planet.

Share that the Holman Bible Dictionary describes the certainty of God’s omnipresence in two ways:

• God is present in a spatial sense. Because God is Spirit, He is not bound by human constraints but is able to be present in all places at all times.
• God is present in a relational sense. Because of His love for us, God chooses to live in relationship with each of us, “present in the day-to-day human existence.”
  [Source: “God,” in Holman Bible Dictionary, available from http://www.studylight.org/dictionary/hbd/view.cgi?number=T2335.]

Divide students into groups of two or three. Encourage students to share with their group:

• Describe a time when you felt God was close. How did His presence reveal His love for you?
• Describe a time when you felt God was distant. How can the knowledge that God is always present encourage you when He feels far away?

Give students three to four minutes to discuss, and then call on volunteers to share their answers with everyone. Point out that God is omnipresent, which is good news because it means that even when He feels far away, He is still with us.