“The world will see me no more, but you will see me….”  John 14:19

Do you often feel lonely?  Perhaps that’s an understatement!  Most do, but we need not, at least for too long.  Studies show Americans are lonely, 300 out of 335 million feel lonely.  Not even marriage eliminates it.  Or sports, drinking, and politics.  About 50 million are classified as seriously lonely.

Why?  Maybe because we don’t see God enough!  Wouldn’t having vision or sight of God settle our loneliness?  If most of us could really see and meet God, the “Man Upstairs,” it would probably help!  Oh, just see Him or Her as accepting, forgiving, and loving us just as we are!

John’s gospel in the Bible promises this.  In chapter 14 verse19, Jesus tells his disciples, “In a little while the world will see me no more, but you will see me!”  Really?  Is it just craziness, or “fake hopes?”

How can we see Jesus?  Well, it’s not his body we see but his Spirit.  Have you ever seen Jesus’ spirit?  Probably.  I think I have, and I’m not on drugs either!

Jesus says it’s not possible, however, for the world to see Him, but we should.  How?  Because it’s all in our heads, in our thinking.  The Greek word for thinking is theori, from which we get our word “theory.”  Theory is how we think about something.   And how you think determines whether or not you see Jesus!

What then is the right thinking or theory?  God is Spirit, Spirit was also in Jesus, as God is in us.  Earlier in the gospel, Jesus says to the woman at the well, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and truth.”  (John 4:24) Spirit is One, non-local, everywhere, like Light.  Without light the world and universe could not exist.  Without the Light of understanding, we would never see God, or Jesus, as Spirit.

We could see Jesus like our loved ones who have died or passed.  We often think of them as spirits or angels.  Some even claim they can hear from them. Spirit is our very essence even now.  We are all Spirits or Angels in our being, in our right thinking or theories.  So, look at people around you and say, “You are angels and I want to see it!

I know the old joke about the man who said, “My wife is wonderful, a perfect angel!”  His friend responded, “You’re lucky; mine is still living!”  But seeing Spirit, God or your deceased loved ones is a matter of how we think and see ourselves, or the one who taught about him named “Jesus.”

How can we experience this?  Most of the time we worry, fret and do not feel very happy about things around us.  The world seems like a big mess, which it is!  It’s a lonely place.  How can we get beyond or out of it?  In our thinking, or our prayers!  We can practice daily, hourly, even as part of our breathing.  Prayer can be like something on our shopping list.  But Prayer is not something we bring home and put it on the shelf; prayer can become like our breath.  We keep remembering, remembering and remembering!  We spend time in prayer and meditate upon words like these.  We meditate on them while sitting, walking, working, riding, and before meals in morning, noon and evening!  We can carry reminders on our “smart phones!”  Every hour I receive a little reminder.  Today it is, “Heaven is but a choice I must make!”

It’s so hard to remember because we get caught in our busyness, our mortality.  We get stuck in our bodies, country, city, politics, and churches.  We are like bees who get stuck in their own honey.  But remember, if you and I want to see and know God as with us, we must understand we are in spiritual territory; it’s beyond the body.  It is akin to music, poetry, ocean waves, blowing wind, quiet wooded areas, or closing our eyes and seeing.

And what happens if we keep remembering?  You’ll have one of those experiences when you feel right out of your mind!  It’s like being in bed with a lover!  (Let’s hope it’s your proper mate!)  The word for knowing is ginosko, which is the word also for sexual intimacy.  Jesus said, “You will know Him!”   “In the days to come you will know the father because you love each other.”    Wow!  We can have that every day!  One can “know his wife or husband” in an intimate way.  Prayer and meditation become the Viagra for encountering intimacy with Jesus, with God, the great Unknown, Inexpressible One!

What more would you want?  Why wait?  Why waste time feeling sorry for yourselves, your so-called littleness.  It is the same search and longing in each human being on earth.  Riches and fame won’t bring it.  At least if it’s in them you trust.

So be happy in your Self, your true identity.  For “The world will see me no more, but you will…!”