Crushed

Isaiah tells us that God lives engrossed in holiness (Isaiah 57:15), but this doesn’t mean that God is hiding behind a veil of smoke and mystery. God is here, now; especially with the crushed and lowly. The prophet says it much better than me: ‘The one who is high and lifted up, who lives forever, whose name is holy, says: I live on high, in holiness, and also with the crushed and the lowly, reviving the spirit of the lowly, reviving the heart of those who have been crushed.’ The word translated crushed is sometimes called contrite. So even though the Creator is immersed in holiness, he is always close to people who recognize their need for mercy and grace – the remorseful, the repentant, the humble.

George MacDonald used to say, ‘The person who is proud of anything he thinks he’s reached, has not reached it. He is but proud of himself … Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they are of the same spirit as God, and of nature the kingdom of heaven is theirs.’

Check the way you hold yourself, your posture. If you’ve learned to walk through life with an unpretentious stance, God is closer to you than your fingertips.