I’m part of a weekly lunchtime Bible study with a group of women from several different organizations—we’ve been meeting for about six weeks now via video conference, and since we’re geographically dispersed, even were we not under “stay-at-home” orders, video chats would be our meeting place!
In the short time we’ve been meeting, I’ve found myself encouraged each week.
Today, the “founder” of our little band said something that really struck me. The conversation had turned to our current situations and what we sense God is showing us or teaching us or how He has sent small blessings in the midst of unusual times.
She mentioned how we sometimes find ourselves in situations in life that weren’t what we expected. In short, life just doesn’t go how we planned! Maybe we’re married and thought we’d have children by now. Maybe we’re not married and thought we’d be married by now. Maybe it’s a job or promotion that we were SURE we would have achieved by now.
And she phrased it as the “presence of absence”.
And wow, that just hit me—because I’ve realized in life that it’s often in the presence of absence that we can deeply experience God’s presence.
The people I know who have some of the deepest relationships with Christ are those who have also been through deep pain, deep loss, deep disappointment at what they thought would be.
The presence of absence.
Yet in this absence they’ve chosen to press deeply into Jesus and have found that His presence fills their absence.
Does this mean pain is gone? Maybe. Sometimes. Not always.
But joy is full.
Psalm 16:11 says, “You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.”
Whatever “absence” is present in your life now—whatever is present in mine—let’s allow that absence to direct us more deeply into God’s presence.
What a beautifully profound and transformational post! Thank you, Gina!