“The space between us”.

“There is no greater distance than that between a man in prayer and God”.

(Ivan Illich)

I recently came upon this quote, and it caused me to reflect upon the accessibility we have toward God.


As I understand, the predominant view of God’s position is this; the distance between God and us is vastly insurmountable. He is that “old man upstairs”; Dwelling somewhere on the other side of the universe. A place we cannot fathom let alone reach. And we could never hope to close that gap.


Yet we can hope; for God himself has embarked upon an epic journey, crossing time and eternity - the very vastness of space. Standing before us at arm’s length just out of reach; beckoning, calling, for us to come to him. Our Lord has taken all the steps necessary to reach us - save one; and it is this last step that is ours alone to take.


This last step is that of prayer. For in taking the singular step of prayer, we bridge the gap between ourselves and our heavenly Father. We take the last step that closes the gap between lovers. We cross the divide that prohibits embrace, falling into the arms of our savior and glory in his embrace. We move from isolated darkness into the light of his comfort.


I believe that the reason the perceived distance between us and the Lord is maintained is due to the fact that so many fail to take that last step. For when we fail to take this final step, the distance between light and dark and the vastness of the universe pale in comparison to the space between us and our God.


And so it would seem that through prayer my “faraway god” is not so far away after all!

Luther