Where is God?

Once when I was praying, I asked myself: "Is God listening to me at all? Or is he listening to my wife who is also praying? Maybe the neighbour and the priest and many others are also praying. We are over 5 billion people in this world. Of those, probably a million are praying to God at the same time. How does he manage to listen to all of them? Where is he that he can do that? The idea of upstairs doesn't work because the earth is a sphere. Where is the top?

In our time, we have gained new knowledge through the world of computers. We know about networked systems, networks with distributed intelligence and - yes, that's it: a client-server solution as a visual aid. The central computer is connected to intelligent clients, usually PCs.

The central server - stands for God. The clients - these are us humans. And we are connected to each other in an intelligent network. So in every human being there is a God function that is connected to the central God. I already have a name for this network. It is called "Holy Spirit". Doesn't the Bible say that God pours out the Holy Spirit on us in his network? No, of course there is nothing in the Bible about a network. The evangelists could do nothing with this term. But the idea that God pours out the Holy Spirit on us through a network has a lot of positives. It is not a one-time process, but a permanent one, and in the network there is also feedback. And just as a server can attend to all clients, God also has a hearing for all people.

Is this a useful comparison? Does it help in understanding God and can we find God with it? So the God is within us. It helps me. I know God knows me by name with all my faults and weaknesses and nothing I can hide from him.

And if I am very quiet and pray, he also answers.

Gerhard Eichinger

Gottesvision des Propheten Ezechiel, Gemälde von Raphael

Versuch einer Netzwerkdarstellung aus dem Jahre 1475/80 im Meditationsbild des Bruder Klaus