When Christ brings his cross, he brings his presence; and where he is, none is desolate, and there is no room for despair. As he knows his own, so he knows how to comfort them, using sometimes the very grief itself, and straining it to a sweetness of peace unattainable by those ignorant of sorrow.
~Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)
Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’ Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.” And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.” So the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.”
~ From Exodus 33
Oh beloved, it is true. G_d is omnipresent. There is, however, some sort of seeming concentration of Who He Is to those who are willing to yield fully to who He is – and could be in their lives. There is no way for us to enter into this place in our own strength, for finite cannot push through the event horizon into His infiniteness. He must draw us, enable us, and bring us into this place.
This writer has had some experiences in the Presence of G_d that are only cheapened by words. He has brought healing and clarity to my life in ways that i never thought possible. And in the same way, this writer has had periods of time where he has not felt the Presence, but has known He was there.
And indeed some of the greatest saints have had long seasons where G_d, in keeping His own counsel, has deemed it best that a saint not actually “feel” His Presence. Mother Teresa went through many decades of this very season. So, perhaps, it is for those of us most weak in our walk with Him, that He chooses to show Himself most clearly.
Moses had communed with G_d for years. Even so, he only wanted more.
