20 February 2023 | St Albans, UK [Vanesa Pizzuto]
I love travelling. A while back, I was on board Airbus A321 bound for Amman, Jordan. I usually choose an aisle seat so that I can get up and walk without disturbing anyone. But the flight was full, so I was assigned a window seat over the left wing of the plane. Although I did not know it, God had planned a surprise for me…
The flight was peaceful and without any turbulence. Half an hour before landing, I began seeing the immense city of Amman. It was night time and the city lights were bright, forming gorgeous incandescent veins and arteries. The whole city looked like a living organism, like those strange phosphorescent deep-sea creatures floating in the midst of prevailing darkness.
“This view is so beautiful. I wonder what everything looks like from where You are,” I told God, as I pressed my nose against the window. That’s when God surprised me. He answered my prayer with a clear and direct “I am right here.” I got teary-eyed thinking that God was with me on the plane, not far away into the stratosphere.
The Bible tells the story of how God draws ever nearer to us. He looks for us and breaks down every barrier that separates us from Him. He comes so close that he becomes one with us. Emmanuel. His plan is to be with us forever, beginning here and now.
God is with us now. In his book With, Christian author Skye Jethani explains this by saying that when we are joined with God through Christ, we are invited to experience life with God right now. It’s true that we will fully experience it when we are completely freed from the illness and wickedness of sin, but that does not mean we cannot experience God in the present.
When you do the dishes, answer e-mails, and prepare breakfast, God is with you. At the bus stop, when you are paying your taxes or even in an airplane, God is with you. Jesus promised He would always be with us; every day, even to the end of the age. As you go about this day, remember that Jesus says, “I am right here.”
“And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of age” (Matthew 28:20).
Vanesa Pizzuto is the author of No Fears, No Chains (IADPA), a daily devotional for women seeking to live with freedom and emotional abundance [Photos: Pexel Photos by Oday Hazeem and Twelve Visualz].
