Lets get personal

Of course, such passages are somewhat ambivalent too. Gods presence to David
was not so personal that God was able to advise him about Bathsheba, or counting
soldiers, or how to deal with Absalom. And the prophets insist on Gods
providential presence in Israel in part because the Israelites themselves cannot
sense it as they stumble from one disaster to another.

And Gods presence to the apostles, after his ascension, comes (as Moses promised
in Num. 12:6-8) only via visions like Peters in Joppa or Johns on Patmos. In one
such vision, while Paul is in prison in Corinth (Acts 18), Jesus assures Paul that he
is watching over himsomething, one supposes, that needed to be said because
otherwise Paul might not sense Jesus presence.

The gospel of John actually wrestles with what the personal absence of Jesus will
mean for his followers. I am with you for only a short time, says Jesus, and then
I go to the one who sent me.

You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come
(John 7:33, 34; John 8:21). Jesus shows himself personally to Thomas, but you can
almost hear the ache in Jesus voice when he speaks of us who have not had the
sort of personal encounter Thomas did.

You believe because you have seenbecause, we might say, you have a personal
relationship with me. But Jesus goes on to say, Blessed are those who have not
seen, and yet believe.

Thats me Jesus is speaking about.