“Heaven and earth are three feet apart. But some places, they are closer.” Do you believe that? Celtic Christians talked about thin spaces where God felt very close to them. God is not partial to particular geographic locations, but we may well remember places where God seemed so close to us.
Bethel was a thin space for Jacob. God came to him in a dream showing him angels ascending and descending. When Jacob awakened, he consecrated that place and his life to God. What made the place holy was not what God had done in the past, but that God told him to go back. Jacob left Bethel by himself, but he returned with his whole family. The people around may not have known he renamed it, so it had returned to its previous status as the town of Luz. But Jacob knew. He obeyed God, returned and worshiped there with his whole family. Like his grandfather Abraham, Jacob built an altar to pray. Then he renamed the place again, “El Bethel.” It was the house of God to Jacob. Israelites would worship there in years to come.
Where is the house of God for you? Our God is the Lord of heaven and earth. He is always as near as a prayer. Draw a circle around yourself, and ask God to join you in that holy place to make you holy. Years later, when he met Nathanael, Jesus said, “You will see angels ascending and descending on me” (John 1:51). Everywhere Jesus reveals himself becomes the house of God. I remember a song our music minister Dudley Blakeney sang when I was a freshman in college, “Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near.” Build an altar today. Find a place to pray. God will meet you there.
