Being a mailman, I have people of many different stations in life cross my path. I saw a blind man a couple of weeks ago. I've known this man for years and we've talked on many occasions. But this time was a day when I'd already gone inside an apartment complex and just caught a glimpse of him through a window pane in the mailroom. He was tapping along with his stick and I could see his line of travel was taking him directly to where my truck was parked. I thought to myself that he will tap the truck with his stick and then he will know to go around it. However, something totally unexpected happened.
When he got to where his stick was tapping about three feet from the truck, he stopped. He then put the stick under his arm and began to feel for the truck with both hands. Apparently, he heard the echo of the tap bouncing off of the object in front of him. When he finally stretched out his arms and touched the vehicle, he began to walk all around it feeling every inch of it. Now, if you've seen a mail truck, you know that it is no ordinary passenger car. With its flat windows and protruding mirrors, it is clearly another vehicle altogether. For another ten minutes, he proceeded to walk around the truck feeling and touching the mirrors and the odd angled shape trying to gain a clearer understanding of this new thing that was in front of him.
Immediately, God dropped this into my spirit. We too, grope along knowing nothing but our world and the limited vision it offers. We have no clue how close heaven is to us. We have a finite understanding of the "here and now" and think that heaven is "a long time later." Perhaps when we die. But, in times of crisis, or deep in the middle of some sleepless night, we hear a telltale 'echo' and for an instant we gain a sudden sense that there is something relating to our most recent difficulty that is just beyond our grasp of understanding.
We need take the initiative of the blind man upon hearing this telltale 'echo' when it is suddenly in front of us. The echo reflects just how close heaven is to us in moments of our deepest need. When we hear these echos of heaven, we are filled with wonder, knowing not what we are in the presence of. But in all likelihood, the constant investigation will bear out the result, perhaps even reveal to us unsearchable things we do not know.
