Diogenes of Sinope was a Greek philosopher who is generally considered the founder of the Cynics school of philosophy. According to a popular story, Diogenes waked through Athens in broad daylight carrying a lighted lantern. When people questioned him about the lantern, he would reply, "I'm searching for an honest man." Most of us are more like Diogenes than we might think. We too, look for honesty, we look for truth, we look for love, we look for genuineness, we look for kindness, we look for fairness, it's all just another way of saying that we're looking for God.
God is not to be found by ordinary means: after all, "No man has seen God at any time" (John 1:18) because "God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." (John 4:24).
The Bible describes God as all of the things we look for. "God is love" (1 John 4:8), "God is truth" (John 3:33), "God is grfacious and merciful" (2 Chronicles 30:9), "God is light" (1 John 1:5), "God is faithful" (1 Corinthians 10:3), and "God is no respecter of persons" (Acts 10:34). God doesn't make fun of people who are fat or skinny, tall or short, bad at baseball or basketball, poor at grammar, or just poor. God is everything that we're looking for.
Where is God, people ask? What is God doing, they quip? People look too far for the answer to that question. The Bible says, "God is making His appeal through us" (2 Corinthians 5:20). God is not seen so much in the sickness or the accident, God is seen in the caring hands of rescue workers, nurses, doctors, and friends.
God is seen in cards and visits, phone calls, and prayers. God is not seen in the fire that destroys our home, God is seen in the fireman. God is not seen in hunger and starvation God is seen in soup kitchens, and truckloads of food to the famine. God is not seen in the abandoned child or the orphan, God is seen in the adoption. God is not seen in the depression and war, God is seen in the survival. God is not seen in the degradation of slavery, God is seen in freedom. God is not seen in discrimination and bigotry, God is seen in the courage to stand up against it. God is not seen in the failing human body, God is seen in the strengthening human spirit.
Some people spend all of their time looking for and reporting the bad in our world. If you're looking for the hand of God on things, you need to look for the good. If you do, you'll soon find out that God has a hand in a good many things. You'll also discover that God could use a hand from you. There are enough people "talking up" what's bad; how about some good press for God and good?
God is everywhere, it's just that nobody seems to notice all the stuff he does. God has a lot of people working for Him, doing a lot of good things and it's only fair to point that out. It's not hard to find God if you're looking at all. He's got a major project going right here on planet Earth, you really can't miss it! You don't find God with a lantern, you find Him with your heart.