About the ninth hour Jesus called out with a loud voice, saying: ¨E´li, E´li, la´ma sa-bach-tha´ni?¨ that is, ¨My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?¨ Matthew 27:46 (Reference Bible)
Little do we stop to consider a powerful force that runs through this universe. It is this force which holds planets and constellations in their courses. It gives life to nature. From the smallest molecules to the most complex living organism. All things tick and run in their working order. Something is behind this giving that spark and maintaining it. Surely we cannot wrap a force like that up in simple explanations nor do it justice here in few words. However, whether we believe or not, this force flows, upholding, creating and sustaining.
Those who bow to an Almighty God, would venture to say that this intelligence and this force belong to Him. Those who give the Bible the weight of the argument would say that God, out of His love and grace, has designed all this and runs it all. He is a being which is self-existent and all powerful but has chosen to create this universe and our existence so as to share Himself with someone, like us.
But what if, for some reason, God decides to remove His presence and His mighty arm from someone or something? He could not remove Himself completely because whoever or whatever it was, would cease to exist. But He could remove His conscious presence from that individual. It would create havoc if it occurs to a soul. To remove the benevolent Force and upholding Presence from an individual is to cast that soul into a very dark and scary place. Such would be the testimony of Satan, who chose to oppose God and was cast from His Presence.
Jesus had lived closer than any man to that Presence throughout His lifetime here on earth. Being the very Son of God, He had easily seen into the spiritual world which God the Father inhabits. He had seen the Father working out His plan of redemption and understood His own part in that great plan. All Jesus´ dealings here with us had been a reflection of what He saw of His Father and what His Father desired of Him. There must have been a very close relationship indeed. Yet there on the cross, when His work was finally done, God had to remove His presence from His Son so that the Son could die.
We may not be able to understand all that was being paid for there on that cross nor the exact processes that had to take place, but we can lift all that we do know and understand before the Lord as an offering. One thing we can take for food and nourishment is that this Presence and this Force are what we too should be seeking.
God intended for us to be with Him. He sent His Son to show us that it was possible and pay the ransom. Jesus is our way, He went before us. We can follow Him in many ways but we should keep clear that it is to this goal of reaching the Father, for which we work. Our efforts here on earth should imitate our Savior, in that all that we do is to please Him and draw us closer in every way. In this way we enter this relationship with the Lord. We seek constantly that Presence in our lives. It is an extremely dynamic and real interaction with the highest of all intelligences. It is more than filling and becomes increasingly more necessary for our vital health.
Dear Jesus, thank You for showing us that we too may draw near to God. We want to enter into a relationship with a being which is so far above all that we can imagine. We would love to feel that force flowing in and all around us and have our understandings opened to the One in who all things originate and are held. Provide for us as we look to You, all that we still lack, so that we may enter in. May You be lifted up by our coming.
Amen
Searching For Christ 
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