Nearer than... by Gary Rose

I can't explain why I have come to like these "Little Church Mouse" pictures, but I do. This one reminds me of something that Max T. Neel used to say: "God is nearer than hands or feet and closer than breathing". Now, I can quote Max (who was a gospel preacher for many decades), but I find it hard to convey the enthusiasm with which he said this. As I reflect upon the picture, I think of how it is the starting point of genuine belief. For, when one begins to realize that he is not the center of the universe and begins to seek after God he will find HIM.

And then I thought of Paul at Athens...

Acts, Chapter 17 (World English Bible)

    Act 17:16, Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols.

    Act 17:17, So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who met him.

    Act 17:18, Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also* were conversing with him. Some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be advocating foreign deities,” because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.

    Act 17:19, They took hold of him, and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is, which is spoken by you?

    Act 17:20, For you bring certain strange things to our ears. We want to know therefore what these things mean.”

    Act 17:21, Now all the Athenians and the strangers living there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.

    Act 17:22, Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus, and said, “You men of Athens, I perceive that you are very religious in all things.

    Act 17:23, For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I announce to you.

    Act 17:24, The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands,
    Act 17:25, neither is he served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath, and all things.
    Act 17:26, He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings,
    Act 17:27, that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
    Act 17:28, ‘For in him we live, and move, and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’ (emp. added, GDR)

    Act 17:29, Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man.

    Act 17:30, The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent,

    Act 17:31, because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.”

    Act 17:32, Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; but others said, “We want to hear you again concerning this.”

When a person realizes that he did NOT create himself, then he may in fact look for THE CREATOR- and he will find HIM (if he will really look) 17:27f. above. The picture all speaks to those seeking God when they realize they need HIM- when they are down and need help. The thing is: GOD IS ALWAYS THERE- "nearer than hands or feet or closer than breathing"