How can we know we’ve seen Him, like Jacob at Bethel?
Do we have a photograph? Perhaps He rang the bell?
Do we have some concentrate we’ve cooked up in the lab?
Or could there be signed receipt from someone’s taxi-cab?
These questions are ridiculous; we do not have some proof.
But could there be a reason why God seems so aloof?
One reason is that He’s decreed that people must believe.
Look round at all the evidence that makes His people cleave,
To Him with the conviction that true reality
Will never be dependent on that which we can see.
This isn’t mere conjecture. It’s how it’s always been
Since Adam was a traitor, assisted by his queen.
It’s this that broke their fellowship. The one he’d had with God.
They’d chatted in the garden; discussed things as they trod.
But after he had fallen, he was no longer clean.
And if he saw the face of God – you know what that mean.
Since then man’s former fellowship with God has just declined.
There was no way to look at God. Not one that man could find.
And so for generations we’ve all had to rely,
On listening to messages that came from God Most High.
For some it was quite easy. They lived and breathed that way.
They hungered, toiled and thirsted to hear what He would say.
Like Abraham and Jacob; and Moses each in turn,
Pursued Him with a fervency from which we all could learn.
And through the generations down to the present time,
The purpose of the Christian has been seeking the Divine.
Of course we all can know Him; for He is everywhere.
In fact He’s omnipresent, not scattered here and there.
He has no limitations; He only has to say
A brief word of instruction – nothing can disobey!
And yet in spite of all of this He talks with you and me.
The way He spoke with Adam at the dawn of history.
The only aspect missing is our restricted sight.
A little tiny glimpse of Him and of His blazing light
Would totally destroy us. And so it seems to me,
He keeps Himself invisible for folk like you and me.
So don’t look for a photograph or scientific proof;
Or some weird apparition that floats above your roof.
Instead, be very thankful for what you cannot see.
Unless you would prefer annihilation instantly.
Jim Strickland – written Monday 2nd May 2011
