Promises We Can Count On – Session 2 – So Far Beyond Us

Four reminders of the vastness of our God.

by Amy Gannett

Every time late winter rolls around, I get the itch to go on vacation. I don’t know if it’s the reality that the holiday excitement has finally worn off, or that I’m tired of making the same meals week after week, or that I can’t wait to be outdoors again without an oversized coat. Without fail the desire to get away from the routine of life hits just about the same time every year.

Do you often feel the same? While vacation can be an excellent oppor­tunity to rest and reset, it’s also an excellent opportunity to reflect on the ways that God is different from us. Our desires and even our God-given need for rest highlights for us ways that we’re distinct from our limitless Creator and reminds us of the limits that He has entrusted to us. These limits are ours to honor and steward well, and they point us to a God who is so far beyond us.

Do you feel the vacation itch? Let it push you into remembering four big truths about our great, big God.

He Is Unchangingly and All-Present

It seems there are some things that I can only do on vacation: stick my feet in the sand; eat at restaurants for nearly every meal; wear my paja­mas late into the morning. But isn’t it refreshing to remember that God is present everywhere, and in all places He is unchangingly the same? He is the same God with us at home in our workout clothes as He is when we’re laying poolside. He is the same God when we’re washing dishes for the hundredth time as He is when someone is whisking away our plate at a fancy restaurant. He is the same at home and on vacation. He’s present in all these places, and He invites us into daily routines of worship and discipleship, no matter where we are.

He Never Tires of Us

I never knew weariness in my routines until I had the little ones. The mundane nature of each day can often overwhelm my heart. There are always dishes to be done, bottles to wash, diapers to be changed, laundry to be folded, and toys to be put away. There are nap routines and bed­time routines, food to cut up into itty-bitty pieces, and clean up off the floor when the babies decide they no longer like their favorite food. The cyclical nature of each day can wear on me, and I can grow weary with their repetition. But the way we often tire of our homebound routines is a reminder of another way God is so unlike us. Though we tire of doing the same thing day after day, God never tires of us. His care towards us never ceases and His delight in us never waivers. Though we have prayed to Him the same prayers day after day, His ears don’t grow weary of hearing them: “This is the confidence we have before him: If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked of him” (1 John 5:14-15). God’s heart is ever stretched in our direction: “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him” (Ps. 103:13).

We Are Never Far From His Presence

For all who are in Christ, God is always as close as our next breath. By His Spirit, He dwells within all who have been united to Him in Jesus. Just like David said in the book of Psalms, there is nowhere we can go where we’re beyond His reach.

“Where can I go to escape your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to heaven, you are there;

if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

If I fly on the wings of the dawn

and settle down on the western horizon,

even there your hand will lead me;

your right hand will hold on to me.

If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me,

and the light around me will be night’—

even the darkness is not dark to you.

The night shines like the day;

darkness and light are alike to you” (Ps. 139:7-12).

There is nowhere we could run from God’s Spirit, even if we wanted to. We can go to the moun­tains, and there He is. We can go to the beach, and there He is. We can go to a city or to the country, over the ocean, or swim beneath the waves, and we will find Him unrelentingly present with us.

Even though my seminary-trained self knows better, there are times when I feel like what keeps God close to me are my habits and rhythms of discipleship. I feel clos­est to God when I’m in my routine of having a daily quiet time and spending time in Scripture. Which means when I go on vacation and break these habits, it is easy for me to imagine that God is somehow far­ther from me. When we get a flat tire on our road trip or run into trouble at the airport, I can feel as though I must holler to get God’s attention. He feels far. But my feelings betray my better doctrine: God is always the same, and He is always present. There is no where we can go where He is not.

He Is Limitless

We have God-given limits; thus, we need rest. Our bodies betray our best efforts to be limitless. We work our fingers to the bone, stay up late and wake early, only to fall and fumble against our human limitations. We need to rest. This is a part of our God-given design. Vacation can be an amazing way to get deeper rest than just a good night of sleep, rest that resets our mind and heart and unplugs us from certain responsibilities we have at home.

Our culture pushes back hard against limitations. A quick internet search of “limits” will reveal hundreds if not thousands of blog posts that tell you to push through your limits, break through your barriers, and expand yourself beyond your limitations. While any of these may be well-intended, they ignore a central Christian truth: God has given us limits to remind us that we’re not God.

God alone is limitless. He alone can work without resting. When we feel in our bodies and hearts the need for rest — the desire to break from our daily respon­sibilities to reset — we can let these desires point us upward to the only One who is truly limitless. Even if we can’t take the break we desire, even if vacation isn’t in the budget or schedule this year, ours is the privilege of letting our limits remind us of He who is limitless. We have the joy of looking at our limits and then looking at our limitless God in reliance, dependence, hope, and gratitude.

This summer, whether our families take a vacation or stay home, we’re invited to remember that our God is unchanging, that He alone is all-present, and that our God-given limits push us into further reliance on Him. It’s our joy to delight in His joy over us, to notice the way that He doesn’t tire of us, and to worship Him in response.

What is more, those of us who are parents have the opportunity to share these big truths with our children as they swim in the pool, the lake, the beach, or play in the backyard sprinkler. It’s our privilege to pass these big truths down to the next generation in a way that cements them in their hearts and minds so that one day when they take their little ones on vacation they, too, can remember our always-present God.

Amy Gannett is a Bible teacher and writer with a deep desire to see the gospel transform the lives of little hearts and minds. When she’s not chasing her own toddler around the house, this passion fuels her work through Tiny Theologians^®, a line of discipleship resources she developed for children ages two to 12. Through her company, Amy has seen the profound impact of teaching children to know and love God through His Word — both in her own home and around the world. Amy and her husband, Austin, are also church planters in eastern North Carolina, where they witness first-hand how big truths about God draw little hearts into joyful relationship with Him.

This article originally appeared in HomeLife magazine (July 2023). For more articles like this, subscribe to HomeLife.