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Verse:“The Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” —Isaiah 7:14
Pauline was just fourteen years old when she became pregnant. When she was fifteen, she gave birth to a daughter she named Louise, and at the insistence of family members, she placed her little girl up for adoption.
Pauline went on to marry and have four more children, but she and her husband often talked about the baby she never knew. She longed to be able to see her again.* “Louise” was named Carol by her adoptive family.
They were not supportive of her desire to find her birth mother, and local authorities told Carol that the papers relating to her adoption were lost in a fire. With a heavy heart, Carol accepted she would never be able to locate her birth mother.† When a television program reunited the women, fifty years after Carol was born, they discovered they had spent many years living just ten minutes from each other.
Both women regretted they had lived in such close proximity without being able to spend time together.‡ It is not uncommon for people who come to faith in Jesus to say that their greatest regret is that they had not done so sooner.
Every minute disconnected from Jesus is a minute that cannot be retrieved. Yet God is always near. He is not a distant God who cannot be reached. He is not an inaccessible Being who chooses to remain aloof.
When He gave Moses directions to build the sanctuary, God said, “Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8).
Jesus is portrayed as walking in the midst of His church (Revelation 1:12, 13). The prophet Isaiah promised King Ahaz that “the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14), which means “God is with us” (Matthew 1:32). Speaking of His people, Jesus lamented, “You are not willing to come to Me that you may have life” (John 5:40). A woman and her biological daughter would naturally rue their missed opportunities to spend time together.
How important it is that we waste no opportunities to spend time in the presence of the God of heaven. If God is calling you to spend more time in His presence, accept His gracious invitation and draw near to Him.