We assume that any revelation of God in some personal ecstasy must have an aura about it that impresses the person to believe and feel that there is something remarkable about this place, about the world. I have experienced such moments on three or four occasions in my lifetime, so believe that one might expect inexplicable but memorable feeling when sensing invisible reality. I stood on a promontory on my college campus, looking yonder across the Hudson River. There was nothing remarkable about the circumstances or the view, a view that I had seen numerous times. Although beautiful, the view was common. Of a sudden I felt a presence, but no one was there. I felt that if I swung my arm backward I would hit somebody – but no one was there. I felt an aura of presence, and had not attempted to manufacture such an event. There was a strange silence. I am not that imaginative about the unseen for human activity in the natural world. I will not see an unidentified flying object, or even the levitation of a table by some practitioner. I do not expect unusual physical, mental or supernatural experience. God works naturally for me.
On another occasion I felt similar divine presence, and resisted any impending experience, but it came anyway when I acquiesced. To repeat, I am not one who needs some unexplainable/miracle event to verify my faith. I am quite at home with my mind, soul and body, in the belief that the universe could not come by chance. If only one thing came from God, that is all we need. If he does one miracle thing, he need not do another to prove that he exists. If he exists I am at his mercy, so I cast myself upon his mercy. That mercy was made tangible in Jesus Christ, proven in his life, doctrine, sacrifice and resurrection. That confidence is all I need for belief to eternal peace and joy. The whole of the narrative is encased in Scripture and applied to thought and experience.
Jacob’s comment is impressive, that God was present and he, Jacob, was unaware of it (Genesis 28:16). I have no doubt, despite my earthly orientation to my mortality and comfort in it, that if I am sensitive enough, open enough, prayerful enough, that God will provide some awareness of peace that one never forgets if he/she experiences it. That awareness may come late – after the fact. When an insight of delayed awareness came to me, I looked back and saw the footprints of the Lord in the sand. He did carry me. I felt unworthy of his care, but his identity prevailed, as if to say that the ecstatic moment was something that I needed. It was not consciously sought by me. In the whole understanding of Scripture, our combinations in faith are related to assurance.
Jacob called the place Bethel, the house of God. He had to do something, so he heaped up stones of remembrance. From time to time, Israel, in the Old Testament, heaped up stones. Sometimes that is all we can do. We make simple gestures, like writing Pages to ourselves and others, so to mark moments in our lives when we are blessed by God and life. When that happens, one wants to mark it as memorable. It seems special, and it is. All that God asks in return for sublime moments is obedience to righteousness that serves us well in the fulfillment of life. We accept in surrender to higher living, knowing others will doubt, perhaps roll their eyes if we recite the story. Challenge, even doubt, can lead to clarifying beliefs, so to strengthen them or weaken them. Doubt is ultimately overpowered by faith, perhaps with that we identify as God’s presence. Once thoughtfully settled, we can be firmly settled for the future. The test of spiritual life is in one’s faithfulness to Scripture that guides Christian thought and conscience to conduct. That is really all we need. Assurance in that genuine spiritual context will follow. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020