WHERE GOD IS

One day a stranger came to a village and said to the Rabbi, "I've searched all over for God and I cannot find Him anywhere."

The Rabbi said to the stranger. "Since God is here, you've come to the right place." He was offered board and lodgings with an old widow, and for payment the stranger chopped wood for her fire, and helped other villagers in need. Each day the stranger would seek out the Rabbi and ask, "Is God here, and will I see Him today?" And each time the Rabbi would reply, "God is here, and you've come to the right place". 

One day, after walking back from the next village the Rabbi was disturbed from his rest by the sound of voices. Looking up he saw the stranger talking to a man, dusty from many days of travel. As the Rabbi listened he heard the travel-dusty man say to the stranger, "Please help me, I'm looking for God, and I cannot find Him anywhere." The Rabbi smiled and his kindly eyes filled with tears as he heard the stranger reply, "You have come to the right place because God is here. Stay with us and you will find Him." 

For me the moral of that little story is, we don't need to look for God because He is here in our friends and in all the deeds we do. When a person smiles, He is there. He may be in the stranger who helps you or in the pretty flower that pushes up through the frozen ground in Spring. 

When I was returning from the funeral of my Grand Father, I'd passed my local shopping centre and felt bewildered. The March sun was shining, the spring flowers were blooming, people were walking around, smiling and talking. At first I'd felt hurt, like no one cared that my world had ended. But then I remembered how much I loved the sunshine and how happy I would have been on any other sunny day--and somehow it made me smile. God was there in those shoppers, and it was His way of reminding me He was there; the sun was still there, and one day I'd be able to enjoy life again. We need never look for Him, He's with us every moment of every day, it's only up to us to recognise Him.