Even though my nest is now quite empty, I once had a typical American family set-up in my home. I had a husband (and I still do, thankfully!). I had the storybook set of children - a girl and a boy. They're still around too - they just have their own addresses now.
My daughter Nikki is 41 years old now and she and I kind of grew up together because I was a young single mother. She now lives 200 miles from me. I only see her once or twice a year and usually for only a very brief time when we do manage to get together. I make a point of calling her every Tuesday evening on her day off and we get a little conversation - sometimes 5 minutes, sometimes 30, but a very short time in the course of our lives.
My son Josh is 30 and he lives only about 13 miles from me. Often he and his wife and daughter come and spend the night or even the entire weekend with us. We've taken vacations together often over the past several years since we moved to Virginia. When we're not in the same place, we often chat on Facebook about one thing or another.
I was thinking about how these relationships this week and it occurred to me that even though Nikki has known me longest, she knows me the least. There's no criticism in that statement. Her life choices and mine have put us in different places geographically, but because of that, she has limited information about who I really am these days. Unless I tell her over the phone, she has no idea what I am doing with my time, what I am planning or dreaming, or even what I'm thinking about her.
My son could do a bit better. He's often with me on my little adventures or just my boring grocery trips. He knows some secret plans I'm working on. He's around enough for me to "tell him about himself" when I think he still needs some motherly correction. I can tell him about a little household project that I need his help to complete and he'll do it without too much grumbling.
Our relationship with God can be in both those places at different times in our lives. Of course, we're never geographically far from Him. He's as close as our breath. However, we can put distance in the spirit between ourselves and where He is.
When we are distant from Him, we don't know much about Him. We don't know what His plans are for our lives or His kingdom. We don't know the thoughts He has toward us and who He says we are.
When we're a little closer, we might get a glimpse of the Kingdom and what will unfold in the future. We might get some direction on something that God wants us to do in service and we'll be obedient in following through. We're close enough that the Holy Spirit can do some correction and speak into our lives.
Of course, there's an even deeper measure of intimacy we can have with our heavenly Father and if we pursue it, we can be even more in tune with where He wants to take us and what He wants us to do. That's another level of being close - more like the closeness of a marriage, where two are living so close together that they can finish each other's sentences, anticipate each other's needs, and work together to achieve their dreams and goals. When we walk that closely, the Holy Spirit can supernaturally partner with us to bring heaven to earth. I'm not there yet. I've had moments like that, but not nearly enough of them.
If my daughter chose to move to Virginia to live closer to me, I'm sure we'd spend much more time together and our relationship would deepen. Our son is trying to sell his house and his family will temporarily move into our home while they are looking for a larger house and we'll all have to adjust to living very close together. I'm sure we'll know much more than we really want to about each other by the end of that experience!. The difference in our knowledge of each other will be our proximity to each other. I know that my proximity to God is not something that is His responsibility to cultivate - it's mine. I can be as close to Him as I decide to be - and so can you.
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