The Imaginary Line

When we were kids, my parents every February would take us down to visit my grandmother in Miramar, Florida. We always drove down from New Jersey usually over a three day period in our station wagon (those were big back then). My dad would drive and my brother would be up front with him (as the navigator), my mom in the middle seat and my sister and I in the back where we would be lying down for the entire trip. This was long before the era of safety belts being a requirement and 15 air bags. 

I would run my imaginary line down the center of the back area. If my sister dared to pass over that imaginary line, hell would be paid. Usually kid hell was in the form of kicking her or yelling at her for crossing the line into my space. I had created an artificial barrier to separate my space from hers. Fast forward to adulthood where I have put forth the imaginary line in my bed.  My wife better dare not cross my line. We are not cuddly sleepers. We both want our space for sleeping. 

The imaginary line is what distances us from God. I have heard people say many times that they feel God is distant. But God is not distant - he is right there across that imaginary line that we have concocted. We make God remote because God does not exist in space.  God is spirit and and spirit does not dwell in space. Space has to do with physicality and God does not have physicality.  Physical distance is not the issue but likeness. As A.W. Tozer writes, "it is dissimilarity that creates a sense of remoteness between man and God". And that is so true - I feel distant because I have alienated God. Tozer goes on to say that two creatures can be close physically that they touch, yet because of dissimilarity of nature be millions of miles apart. An angel and an ape could conceivably be in the same room, but the radical difference between their natures would make communion possible. 

So then how does man bridge that chasm of dissimilarity? He cannot on his own but Christ did. He broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. At the time of His death, the curtain separating the high priest from the Holy of Holies was rent in two. The dividing line (this was no imaginary line, this was a hard, real one) was split.  But we still have this thing called sin that can make us feel like that barrier still exists. So for me to get back across my imaginary line, I must extend myself in faith across the line. I also must put aside those things that literally pull me from going across the line; those evil things that pervade my consciousness casting the imaginary line. Is there evidence in my inner life of wrong attitudes or evil thoughts? I need to confess them and cast them aside.

This morning upon waking up, I reached out my hand across the imaginary line to find that person who is always there and I held her hand. Oh how God wishes we would do that with Him.