Some friends and my wife and I are going through a video course called "God is Closer Than You Think" as a small group study. The course seems fairly interesting so far, a mixture of video and written material, with discussion before and after reviewing the media. As you try to determine how close God really is, there are some thought provoking questions that can come up. One that we seemed to key on last week (and I'm paraphrasing here) was "If God is always there, why can't we see or hear Him?"
It's a question that I think every believer, and most skeptics, have asked at least once. If you break it down to its basics, I think the question becomes "Why faith, and not sight?" And since I don't advocate "blind faith," I certainly think it's a fair question to ask. Most of us yearn for that certainty, that confirmation of our senses. In times of trouble, that desire can cross into desperation as trials mount, and prayers rise, and we still seem to find ourselves terribly alone. We sing "Our Redeemer Lives," but doubts can crop up and linger in the most faithful lives, and we tend to think "Wouldn't it be better to simply end the doubt once and for all?"
If we accept that God loves us, and wants what is best for us, then we have to assume the answer to that question is "No," at least for the time being. And as humans, that naturally leads us to ask "Why?" Tackling that question on God's behalf is a foolish endeavor at the best of times, since we know that He looks at things from a much different perspective. Without an explicit reason in the scripture, or divine guidance of the Spirit, whatever we come up with is a an educated guess. We really can't know right now. But we can refer to what has happened in the past, and history indicates that "knowing" isn't half the battle when it comes to God.
Peter declared that Jesus was "the Christ, the Son of the living God." He knew it because God had revealed it. Christ confirmed it. The Son of God was walking with them. Yet, when the time came, the disciples still deserted him. Judas still betrayed Him. Peter denied Him.
Looking further back, into the Old Testament, the Hebrews had forty years of walking with God. They saw Him as a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day. He spoke to them through Moses. He took care of their every need. They didn't have to find food for themselves. And they grumbled against God and Moses. What He provided, they wanted "more" or "better." Many were killed because they wanted to return to Egypt, to be slaves, rather than serve God. Even the prophets were not immune. Moses, Aaron, and Miriam all faced tests of faith and humility and failed at one time or another.
I don't pretend to know the mind of God, but it seems to me that there is nothing about "seeing" God that makes us better servants or improves our relationship long term. Perhaps it's the limitations of the bodies we have now, or the affect that corruption has had on this world. Whatever the reason, I think that in this life we are at least as well off without seeing God "face to face." That might be what Christ meant when He said that even more blessed would those be who "have not seen, and yet still believed." At any rate, it's God's call. Who am I to argue with that?
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