Can God Still Be Near? Ancient Faith and Modern Science
- Jun 29
- 2 min read
June 6, 2026
When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He began with words that remain as beautiful today as they were two thousand years ago:
"Our Father who is in the heavens."
Matthew deliberately uses the plural—tois ouranois—echoing the Hebrew shamayim. To the people of Israel, the "heavens" were layered: the sky above, the realm of the stars, and the transcendent dwelling place of God Himself. The phrase held together two seemingly opposite truths: God is infinitely exalted, yet astonishingly near.
Today, our understanding of those heavens has expanded beyond anything the ancient world could have imagined. The observable universe stretches approximately 46.5 billion light-years in every direction. Beyond that horizon, many cosmologists believe the universe may extend vastly farther, perhaps even without bound.
Against such immensity, an old question becomes new again.
How can the Creator of a universe so unimaginably vast also be close enough to hear a whispered prayer?
Interestingly, modern physics offers not a proof, but an intriguing analogy.
Quantum entanglement reveals that particles once connected can exhibit correlations across extraordinary distances that defy our everyday intuitions about space. Albert Einstein famously referred to this as "spooky action at a distance." Physicists do not understand this phenomenon to mean that information or influence travels instantaneously through space, yet it reminds us that reality is often stranger and more deeply connected than our ordinary experience suggests.
For Dr. Michael Guillen, this becomes a powerful illustration rather than a scientific proof. If the fabric of creation contains relationships that transcend our classical understanding of distance, perhaps we should not be surprised that the Creator Himself is not constrained by distance at all.
The God who fills the heavens has never been far away.
For me, this truth has become deeply personal.
There have been quiet nights, often around three in the morning, when prayer has given way to an overwhelming awareness of God's presence. In those moments, it has seemed as though the ceiling disappeared and the vast heavens opened above me. Brilliant light mingled with deep purples and shifting darkness beyond anything I can adequately describe. At times there appeared what I could only describe as an eye—steady, knowing, filled with awareness.
Whether these moments belong to the language of vision, mystery, or something beyond my ability to explain, their effect has been unmistakable. A warmth has spread through my body. Persistent pain in my hands and leg has momentarily disappeared. Anxiety has given way to profound peace. Even when exhaustion overtook me, I found myself resting in a presence that felt both immeasurably great and intimately close.
I cannot offer these experiences as scientific evidence. I offer them simply as testimony.
Science can measure distances across billions of light-years. It can describe galaxies, black holes, and quantum fields with astonishing precision. But science also reminds us that reality is often more mysterious than our intuition allows.
Faith begins where measurement ends.
Matthew's words therefore carry even greater wonder today than they did two millennia ago. The God who reigns over a universe of unimaginable scale remains "Our Father." His greatness does not diminish His nearness; it magnifies it.
Modern science has not pushed God farther away.
If anything, it has made His nearness even more astonishing.
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