Look closely.

Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” -Exodus 33:18

I cannot recall ever sharing the words of another extensively on my blog, but there is a first time for everything. Sometimes, it seems, the perfect words fall out of the mouth of someone else just exactly when we most need to hear them.

So it was last week, with me and author/ pastor John Ortberg.

My Uppity Women and I had been engaged in a six-week DVD study based on Ortberg's book, God Is Closer than You Think (Zondervan, 2005). The final message, in the final lesson, in light of a week that led many to question God's presence in our broken and wounded nation, really resonated within my small group, so I share his words now with you and invite you to spend time really soaking in the imagery. A small part of it directly references the study, but I am certain you can connect the dots of his reference to Adam and God on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Here are Ortberg's words. Enjoy.

I have been asked by some, how I can be so certain of the existence of a good God,

and I have asked them in return if they have eyes to see.

God is as close as the bounding dog who knows and loves the voice of his Master.

He is as close as the laughter of a joyful heart, close as the touch of a friend.

Our God is not far away in some distant tower.

He is, like Waldo, present on every single page,

even when it’s hard for us to see him.

He is present in the magnificent chapels that we build for him,

and he is present in the most magnificent chapel of mountain and sea

and earth and sky that he built for us.

For his Spirit, like the wind, blows wherever it will

and breathes life into anybody who will let it.

He is present on “rainbow days,”

when our breath gets sucked out of our bodies by his beauty and grace.

He is present in the ordinary moments of every ordinary day,

when we wake and when we sleep,

when we work and when we play,

when we eat and drink,

when we fail and try again—he is there.

And in the winter of our souls, when we feel most alone,

when with Jesus, we cried out on the cross,

“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

he is there, then, too.

We find him in the uniqueness of all of our pathways

and we find him whenever two or three of us come together in his name.

* * * * *

We started our adventure together talking about that scene

on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

where God and Adam are just a hair’s breadth apart,

there is just this tiny little gap between them.

And one day, on the other side of the hedge,

on the other side of death,

that gap will be finally, fully closed,

and then, we will finally see, face-to-face.

But that’s tomorrow, and this is today.

And today, this is our prayer:

God, make up there come down here.

May your Kingdom come into my world, my heart, my life.

And he really can—and he really will.

Because God is closer than you think.

--John Ortberg, “God Is Closer than You Think”