The biblical idea that God communicates with humans is quite radical. It did not occur to philosophers, even though they figured out hundreds of years before Christ that there must be a supreme being over all the petty, immoral, lustful gods of their pantheons. They reasoned that this supreme being must be invisible, immortal, immutable to change, immune to being acted upon, and unknowable. He must be beyond the limitations of time and the evils that come from matter. He must be everything that humans are not.

How could humans connect with this higher reality? Direct communication was out of the question. If this supreme being came down to the level of the physical universe, he would become vulnerable to sins of the flesh and the limitations of time. If humans came up to his level and merged with him, they would lose their individuality. The philosophers had several solutions for bridging the gap between the higher reality and the physical universe. One was mediation—a succession of beings descending from ultimate reality to the level of humans. Another solution was reflected reality. Plato speculated that if the higher reality were reflected, the image might be transmitted intact across the gap between the spiritual and the physical. But between the supreme being and the creation there was an impassable gap.

Today there is a gap, but it was not always there. Our God, who is Spirit, not only creates matter, but also gets his hands in the mud and molds a man. He talks with him. He makes a weekly appointment to spend time with him. Then sin enters and erects a near-impenetrable barrier between Creator and creature. God is light, but his creatures love darkness. He is holy, but they love sin. He is truth, but they love lies.

So the man runs away from God, but God pursues him. He confronts Adam in the garden. He gives directions to Noah. He walks the dusty road with Abraham to explain his judgments. He inhabits a tent in the midst of Israel’s encampment and travels with his people. He descends on a mountain with fire and smoke, lightning and thunder, and proclaims his law. He sends prophets with messages to kings and subjects.

Much of the time he meets with stiff resistance. How can he breach the concrete fortification that sin has erected? Since thunder and lightning, floods and earthquakes were not overly effective, he decides on an amazing strategy. He invades this world in a disarming way—sneaking in as an infant through the womb of a virgin. He grows up as a humble peasant, working as a carpenter. He serves; he blesses; he teaches. His disguise slips as he reveals supernatural power to create seeing eyes in the blind, hearing ears in the deaf, and resurrected life to a decomposing body. As Creator, he assumes the guilt of his creation and dies for their sins. Then he rises again to life and ascends to heaven. As a result of his incredible mission, he transforms prostitutes, swindlers, and hypocrites into redeemed people.

Jesus is the one who connects heaven and earth by being God and human. He spans the gulf that separates us. How does he reach us today?

The transactions between God and humanity are recorded in Scripture. Through the narratives, the laws, the prophecies, the Gospels, and the letters, we learn how God speaks to his creatures and how we are to relate to him.

But sometimes we go through dry periods when communication seems to be cut off. We ask, Where is God? Why doesn’t he hear me? Why doesn’t he answer?

Once I experienced a dark time. I was praying desperately for loved ones going through a crisis. I planned how God could intervene each step of the way. But God missed every deadline I set for him.

Then a student of mine experienced excruciating headaches. The diagnosis at Mayo Clinic showed a brain tumor. This time, my mind was fortified with books on miracles, signs, and wonders. God was acting miraculously all over the world. Why not for me? I stormed heaven’s gates with organized prayers at Union College. The surgery was successful. David was not paralyzed. Was he really healed?

Several months later, the dreaded news reached me—the cancer had recurred. I was devastated. A dark cloud came between me and God. The way to heaven was impenetrable.

But David’s life was ebbing away and I knew I had to go with him through the valley. What could I say to help him when my own faith was so small? I remembered how heaven had come near in my past studies of the book of Ephesians. I came to David with that book.

He was propped up in a chair, his handsome face swollen from steroids. As we read about all of God’s blessings in the heavenly places, he began to cry and say, "God is so good! God is so good!" So good? Just finished with a nursing education, a wife and two young children to support, under a death sentence? But he was seeing heavenly realities.

On another visit, I found him on a hospital bed in the living room of his small home. He held the Bible on his chest and read about how God has raised us from the death in sin and lifted us up to sit with Christ Jesus in heavenly places. He reviewed his experience—a young navy man into alcohol, drugs, and the occult when he felt a desperate need for God. On shore leave, he found an Adventist pastor, studied intensively for ten days, was baptized, and went back to sea armed with a big library of commentaries and Ellen G. White books. There he witnessed, often under persecution. Then came his marriage and college years. And there on that hospital bed he found himself seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus.

Not long after, as my husband and I watched him breathe his last, I realized I had found my faith again. I saw that through the Bible that God is with us in life’s worst situations. Our challenge is to know God’s word so well that we can see beyond the dark clouds to the brighter land above. We can surmount every barrier through the promises of God’s word.

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word.
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
Who unto the Saviour for refuge have fled?

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed;
For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid.
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

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