Unpacking Intimacy With God

Grace on Assignment

In Mike Mason’s wonderful book, The Mystery of Children, he tells of an elderly neighbor named Bob who endured a painful heart ailment. The man tried dietary changes, medical experts, and prayer–but his condition did not improve. He began seeking God for a word, some kind of a message. Urgently. For weeks on end.

God do you know me? Do you care?

But there was only silence.

Then one day…Bob and the author, Mike, stood outside chatting in the warm September sun. Across the way, a three-year-old, little Down’s syndrome girl named Grace, came out to play. Suddenly she ran toward the two men. Mike wrote: “(with) her pudgy legs pumping and her arms outstretched wide…it looked like she was planning to barrel right through us. Sure enough, with her round shining face uplifted in ecstasy, she plowed straight into Bob. She just wanted to give Bob a hug.”

The man was so wrecked he had to lie down on the grass. Grace seized the opportunity to jump on top of him and covered him with kisses. She refused to leave him alone. “In that moment,” Bob told Mike later, “God spoke to me. He said I love you. He spoke it right into my heart.”

Turns out, Bob didn’t know Grace in any special way. But God knew them both and sent Grace on assignment—to pour out His extravagant tangible love on Bob.

Do you know how God feels about you? Do you want an amazing connection with the living God? Have you wondered if it is possible?

God is closer than your skin!

Everywhere I go I meet faithful people living the Christian life who have limited or often no real experience of God. Like me, they may have wondrous feelings at a candlelit Christmas Eve service. They may find countless biblical truths relevant to their lives. But to say they’ve experienced connection, communication, or some kind of encounter with God in a palpable way feels like a stretch. They don’t want to be called crackpots, yet they yearn for something real, beyond mere religious activity and rhetoric.

I believe with fervency that God seeks out and wants points of contact with the likes of you and me. It is a wonder, yes! And yet, not so farfetched when you remember that same God chose to enter the human race.

For the last three decades, I’ve collected numerous true accounts of God speaking, touching and moving in people’s lives, including many stories of my own. I will share them here each week with a bit a teaching now and then. The good news is that God is real, and He can be known.

Join me, and together, let’s unpack the mystery of intimacy with God. Signup for a weekly God story. The more you learn through these posts, the more you’ll start looking for God in your own world of divine happenstance!