When you ask questions about God, one of the first answers you are given is that God is everywhere. Then you may wonder how you know that God is everywhere. Here is a story to help you find the answer.

One day when I was waiting at an English railway station for my train to arrive, I saw a boy sitting all by himself on a wooden bench at the far end of the station, just where most of the locomotives stopped. He had a notebook on his knee; and every time a train pulled up, and even when one rushed through without stopping, he would write something in his book.

I was curious to know what he was doing, so I sat down beside him and asked if he would explain. "I'm train-spotting," he said; and then he showed me a neatly ruled page on which he had written down the type, and the number if possible, of each locomotive that passed through the station.

Now I hadn't noticed the differences between one locomotive and another, maybe because I was not interested; so I asked how he knew all about the different types and the way they were numbered.

He told me that he had bought some books which described the locomotives and the kind of trains they hauled. He also told me that every locomotive had its very own number, no matter how big or how small it was, whether it was used for hauling express trains or for shunting empty freight cars in the yards.

"What do you do with all the information you collect in your notebook?" I asked.

"I compare notes with my friends at school, and we tell each other what to look out for," he explained.

I thanked him for telling me about train-spotting; and as I went on my journey, I thought a great deal about his hobby. It seemed to me a good idea to be interested in spotting other things besides trains, and this is when I thought of the idea of spotting God's presence everywhere!

Do you remember how Jesus sometimes taught the people who came to listen to him by telling them stories? These are called parables. So let us suppose that my talk with the boy is a kind of parable, and now we shall see how it can help us to find out that God is indeed everywhere.

Train-spotters have books with pictures so that they can quickly recognize the different types of locomotives. We who are students of Christian Science also have books, two special books, full of word pictures of God and His creation.

First we have the Bible, which tells us a great deal about people who knew of God's ever-presence. Some of them were important people, such as kings and generals. Others were simple people, like a captive maid and a shepherd boy. But they knew about God being everywhere. They understood that they could never be out of His presence and that they could keep their thoughts alert and ready to recognize signs of His presence.

The other book we have to help us is Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, who right from the time when she was a little girl wanted so much to find out more about God that she spent a great deal of time watching for proofs of God's presence.

That train-spotting boy must have been really eager to know about all the different locomotives, for he spent his pocket money on the books that he needed. And he must have studied them carefully. He needed to be prepared and very alert to recognize quickly the express trains that thundered through without stopping.

We, too, want to be able to recognize God's presence quickly, especially when something not at all Godlike seems to be present. So we shall be interested to find out from our two books just how to do this.

Many of us already know that God is Love, and we can start right away to see the presence of Love all around us. In the Bible we are told about a man called John, who was a friend of Jesus and listened to his parables. This is what John wrote about God's presence: "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us." ^{I John 4:12;} And in Science and Health, we read, "And Love is reflected in love." ^{Science and Health, p. 17;}

Here we have two helpful clues that show us how to recognize God. They tell us what to look for. When we see someone do a loving thing or when we have a warm feeling that makes us want to do and say loving things ourselves, we shall quickly recognize Love's presence, because we shall know that this loving is really the reflection of God. And the more we look for reflections of Love, the more we shall find.

As we learn more and more of God, we shall find other ways of recognizing His ever-presence. Learning that God is Truth, we shall start looking for ways to recognize Truth. And we shall find all the clues we need in our two books.

Christ Jesus promised that if we do our part we shall find what we are looking for. He said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." ^{Matt. 7:7.} So let us go right on asking and seeking and knocking; and let us compare notes with our companions who are learning to recognize God's presence everywhere.