My favourite Bible verses are from Psalm 139.
No, not the part that everyone quotes about being fearfully and wonderfully made. I mean the less often noticed lines about God following you everywhere you go:
Psalm 139: 7-12: 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. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
These verses delight me, and they annoy me. As a mother, there have been times I’ve just wanted to hide. To camp out in the tiny space I found between the back of the couch and the lounge room wall, or anywhere well-concealed enough to stop the endless stream of demands. There have been times in my life when I’ve felt I’m not good enough for God or haven’t wanted to go where He wants to send me. Then, I’ve tried to hide from Him.
But these verses tell me that isn’t going to happen. And as annoying as that seems when all I want is to be left alone, they’re a wonderful promise. No matter how hard I try to shake God off, he’s clinging tight, like my toddler son to my leg when he didn’t want me to leave him at daycare the first time. God’s omnipresence guarantees he will always be right there, whether I like it or not.
It doesn’t make any difference whether I’m feeling high or low. It’s irrelevant whether I bounce out of bed full of praise or pull the covers over my head because I don’t want to face the day that’s coming. Whether I move to the other side of the world or curl up behind the couch in the space between it and the wall, I cannot escape from God. He just won’t let me go.
Even the darkness of my thoughts cannot hide me because night is like light to Him. “I see you,” He says. “I see you … and I’m not letting you go.” As much as I hate that sometimes, deep down, I’m depending on it too.