"Where can I go from your [God's] Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, 'Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,' even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb" (Psalm 139:7-13, NIV).

In her book, "Created for commitment," Wetherell Johnson wrote, "Before World War II there was a grave in Germany sealed with a granite slab and bound with strong chains. On it an atheist had inscribed, 'Not to be opened throughout eternity.' Somehow a tiny acorn had fallen into a crack in the slab. In time its outer shell 'died' and the tiny seed took root. Years later, a huge oak tree had grown and had completely broken up the inscription slab with the words, 'Not to be opened throughout eternity.'"

If this man were an atheist, why would he have been worried about what would happen after he died?

Throughout the ages every culture and society has had a religion of one kind or another. This is one of the many evidences of the existence of God, for in the heart of every person who has ever been born is a deeply ingrained sense of a Divine being. This is why we search for God or try to hide or run from him -- as Jonah tried to do. And failed! And as the man in the grave above hoped to do.

What he didn't realize was that, "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27).

As David the Psalmist reminds us, we cannot hide from God. Ever. Anywhere. We either face him now or later -- one way or the other. So much wiser and better to run to him now and accept his forgiveness and the gift of eternal life than to face him after we die at the Great White Judgment!

"Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank you that you have died for me to pay the judgment for all my sins. I come to you today just as I am. Help me to find you and know that I know that I know that you are in my heart and that I have been fully forgiven for all my sins and have a home in Heaven waiting for me to be with you for all eternity. Gratefully in Jesus' name. Amen."