Why Does God Feel Absent?

I think most of us would have really enjoyed the relationship that Adam and Eve had with God. He was like a member of the family. They would see Him on a frequent, if not daily basis. 

Unless you are blind, you really depend on your eyes. Even though we know that there are things that can’t be seen, seeing is believing for most of us. Everything else tends to feel a bit surreal. This holds true for measurable stuff like germs or radiation as well.

The Bible reveals to us that God is a spirit. It doesn’t define for us what is a spirit. Cobbling together bits from the Bible, this would be my glossary definition of a spirit: A spirit is a thinking, feeling, and very real being who does not have a set physical form. A spirit can exist either within the time-space continuum of a universe or outside of it.

For the sake of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Abraham, Daniel, Isaiah, John, and possibly others God took on a form that they could both see and relate to. Taking on a form was a protective measure, because humans (especially sinful humans) are not able to survive in direct exposure to God.

I used to work at a nuclear power plant. I was told that a spent fuel rod from the plant is so highly radioactive, that if you drove at 100 miles an hour at an unshielded spent fuel rod, you would be dead before you got there. Think of the immense power that God must be. He speaks the Universe into creation. It is not much of a stretch to understand how we can’t tolerate God’s direct presence if we couldn’t tolerate the direct presence of a fuel rod.

So why not an indirect presence? A daily vision, I would take that. Some of the separation between us and God must be choice. We are sinners, even if we are redeemed sinners. God could do this, but is rare. Historically rare. Humanity is under God’s curse because of sin. The curse appears to me to be God electing to step back, but not step away, from Creation. He lets Creation roll free and the cause and effect of how the Universe is created produces some problems for us. Part of stepping back includes making even indirect, visible contact rare. 

How about invisible, indirect contact? This is what prayer life is. This is what having the Holy Spirit dwell in you is. When we are being faithful and daily making use of prayer and Scripture, doing our best to obey and confessing our missteps, then God feels close because He is close. Being absorbed in our problems and wavering in our faith makes God feel far away, even though He is not. God makes promises to be near us. A part of faith is to trust that God is faithful in what He promises. The feeling of God’s closeness is not imaginary. It is real. 

It is a negative metaphor, but it works. Germs are real. They are almost everywhere. When I respect that I sneeze into my elbow, I wash my hands frequently, I keep my distance when sick. I have faith in the presence of germs. I don’t sense them.  If I think that I feel germs on my skin, that is imaginary.

Our separation from God doesn’t have to be permanent. Because of Jesus, the primary reason we are separate, sin, is forgiven. When we die we leave the last of our sin in the grave. With a heavenly body, and later with a resurrected Earthly, spiritual body, we will be able to interact with God directly.

“Therefore they are before the throne of God,
    and serve him day and night in his temple;
    and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
¹⁶ They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
    the sun shall not strike them,
    nor any scorching heat.
¹⁷ For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,
    and he will guide them to springs of living water,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Revelation 7:15-17 (ESV)

It is bad feeling to feel adrift or abandoned by God. Remember that He is merciful. Remember or discover what Jesus has done for the whole of mankind. Confess your sins to God and you will discover that you can still have a close relationship even though it is invisible, indirect contact for now.