It's always there, and He is too

"And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Most of us probably know the passage when Jesus says, "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). As comforting as it reads, if we're honest, we don't always believe God's nearness.

When things aren't going as planned, God feels silent, we feel alone and in a season of refinement that's lasting just a little longer than what's comfortable, we find ourselves alone in our cars, looking up to the sky saying, "God, where are you?!"

I remember being a freshman in college and wondering if there were minutes (or hours) during the day when God left me to tend to someone else with real, valid problems. Moving away to college was the first time I had ever (no really, ever) been away from home.

I didn't partake in sleepovers or sleepaway camps as a kid, so my "test run" was moving 3 hours away from home to attend a school where I knew 1 person.

My potluck roommate and I didn't really click, I almost switched majors because I believed I wasn't good enough, my underlying eating disorder was growing quickly, and I was in a new place with people I didn't know far away (for me) from my family.

When I would pray for God to help me feel His presence, I felt He revealed Himself through nature. God knows, intimately, every person He created, and He knows how to personally speak to each one of us in a way we will understand.

When I woke up early before the sun, seeing the magnificent sun rise over the campus assured me, "See, He is with me." I went to college in a different state than the one I grew up in, and I remember seeing the leaves change for the first time in this new place and being blown away by the brilliance of the Creator-- I saw colors I had never seen before.

Perhaps my favorite sign of God's presence was through the moon.

I love a good metaphor, so humor me. Whether we see it or not, the moon, just like Jesus, is always there. During the day, the bright sunshine overpowers the light from the moon, but it does not mean that it's not there.

On a clear day, if you look up, you can faintly see the moon; and the realization that it's always there is very comforting. The moon needs to be there! Without it, ocean tides, insects, vegetation, and the animal kingdom would all be affected.

As insignificant as the moon may seem sometimes, compared to the sun, it controls a lot of things and we would not survive without it.

Sometimes it's hard to find the moon because it looks different. One night it's full, the next it looks like a fingernail, and maybe the next night it's the color red! No matter what the moon looks like though, the role and significance that it plays never changes.

I think we all go through seasons when either life feels so sweet, that Jesus feels insignificant. Or, life feels so sour, we wonder if Jesus is even there. The truth is, whether life feels sweet or sour, Jesus is always there. He does not change (Hebrews 13:8), and He rules over every situation, relationship, and detail in our lives.

Sometimes, like the moon, His faithfulness or answers to our prayers, look different than what we expect, but that does not change who He is-- an all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful God.

He holds the whole world in His hands, for if He didn't, we would not be here. So the next time you feel yourself doubt His presence, look for the moon.

It's there, and He is too.