Never Out of Office

Have you ever needed to stop by a coworker’s desk only to find that they’ve stepped away or maybe gone to lunch? Or have you ever sent an email only to have the out-of-office reply bounce back to you? Maybe you’ve experienced living in a different time zone from friends or family and having the impulse to text or call them only to realize they’re asleep at that time?

It can be frustrating sometimes when people are not available when we want them to be and, at other times, critical when we need them and they are nowhere to be found. Part of this frustration simply comes from our impatience or selfishness for wanting people to be around when it suits us, but sometimes urgent matters arise, and we truly need assistance right away. When the person who can give that assistance isn’t available, it can be downright frightening.

As we head into 2022, there are a lot of unknowns, just as there are at the beginning of every other year. What will this year hold? What joys will we experience? What goals will we accomplish? What challenges will we face? What grief will we endure? The past two years have held an incredible amount of loss for so many. Will great losses continue this year? Will those we love be around or services and supplies be available when we need them? While the former questions are filled with promise and hope, the latter ones can bring anxiety.

But what if we were guaranteed to always have access to what—or who—we needed? What if we were never met with that out-of-office reply or the out-to-lunch sign? What if our messages were never silenced by “Do Not Disturb”?

Wonderfully for us, the answer to these questions doesn’t have to be hypothetical, because God, the One who created us and sustains us, is always on His throne. As David, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote, “The LORD is in his holy temple” (Psalm 11:4a, ESV). He is not out of the office. The Great Physician is in. The Provider is in. The Justifier is in. The Merciful One is in. When we are ill, we can come to the One who designed every cell of our bodies. When we are in need, we can approach the One who owns everything in existence. When we commit wrong, we can plead the blood of Jesus to the One who is always Just. When we are weak, we can fall into the strong arms of the One who lavishes mercy. Anytime. Anywhere. He is always available.

Unlike the other spiritual forces, inanimate objects, or human beings that people worship as gods, Yahweh, the God of the Bible, is never “relieving himself;” He is never out of town; He is never asleep. (See 1 Kings 18 and Psalm 121.) And above that, despite His upholding and being sovereign over everything, He is never too busy to be attentive to our every prayer, thought, and cry for help. He is never in a meeting. He is never on the phone. He’s never preoccupied. His limitlessness makes it possible for Him to be wholly available to each and every one of us every single moment of our entire lives. I don’t know about you, but that kind of blows my mind.    

There’s more, though. Psalm 11:4 says, “The LORD is in his holy temple;” but it continues, “the LORD’s throne is in heaven” (ESV). See, it’s not just that God is like a manager who’s never out of the office, a parent who’s never distracted, or a friend who’s never asleep. He is always “at His desk” (i.e., on His throne), but His “office” is heaven itself. He sits enthroned in the highest of heights, the holiest of holies. He has the most authority of any being to ever exist and the capacity to exercise that authority flawlessly. In fact, He can’t not be present and attentive and flawless in the exercise of His authority because that would be contrary to the essence of who He is.

There is much to be in awe of when it comes to God, and this two-fold fact—that He is always on His throne and that His throne is above all things—should fill us with wonder, praise, gratitude, and peace. It means that regardless of what we face in the coming year, we will never be without help. We will never be unable to contact the One from whom we most desperately need to hear. We will never encounter something that has taken Him by surprise. We will never be alone.

So as we enter the seemingly blank pages of 2022, may we rest assured that God already knows what they hold, that He is reigning constantly and securely on the mightiest throne, and that when we call out to Him, we will never be met with an out-of-office reply. Because the God of all creation is perfectly and perennially and eternally “in.”

PC: Yandle Multimedia Photography. 

Used with permission.