My brother told me that he often shops for grocery alone.

Shopping alone was nothing new to him. But now, it is very different. Shopping alone seems so lonely. Before, he knew his wife would be at home waiting for him. But he won’t find her doing so now.

She is with the Lord. That was about 12 years ago.

There’s a great difference between the silence then and silence now. Now, silence is deafening.

Presence matters. A person’s presence is both limited and comes with an “expiry date”. We can only hold on to it for a limited time and thereafter let it go. It is not ours to hold indefinitely. But presence matters deeply.

Moses recognised this, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here” (Exodus 33:15). There are other dramatic accounts of the Presence of God like the burning bush (Exodus 3) and the pillar of cloud and fire (Exodus 13). God Himself lived among us as a man – Jesus Christ.

But just because we don’t expect God’s presence, doesn’t mean He is absent.

My brother experienced the silence of her presence when my sister-in-law passed away. As for some of us, maybe we’ve experience the silence of God’s presence.

Just as my brother does not expect his wife to be waiting for him at home, some of us do not expect God’s presence which awaits us. Peter Kreeft puts it this way: “We practice the absence of God instead of the presence of God.”

But just because we don’t expect God’s presence, doesn’t mean He is absent. He fills the heaven and earth (Jeremiah 23:24)! We cannot flee or hide from the Presence of God (Ps 139:7). So even when we experience the “silence of God’s Presence” in our daily lives, He is actually very much present with us.

Feelings do not define what is true or real in the Christian faith.

God is as present as the air that fills the earth and as the breeze surrounds us.

This is true reality. He is so present and so near. But in our sinfulness, we struggle to experience this reality of God in our lives. So often we have lived a fake life. Our obsessions with our lives, our desires and our needs on earth have clouded our awareness of His very Presence right here and right now with us.

“He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind … but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence … Then there came a voice to him …” 1 Kings 19:11-13 (NRSV)

Elijah was expecting the Presence of God in dramatic moments and forms.

But it was in that “sound of sheer silence” that he experienced the Presence of God. In our average and mundane daily moments, He is present. And when we truly believe God is so present with us in our every moment – be they bright or dark – that conviction will define our actions, thoughts and choices.

The wonder and splendour of His Presence awaits us: Who says the Christian life is boring?

“In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever” (Psalm 16:11b NASB)

This article was first published on YCK Chapel’s website, and is republished with permission.