Isaiah 7:14
God Will Give Us a Sign, Which Means He Will Be With Us
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
Matthew 1:23
God With Us
23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
Luke 17:20-21
God's Kingdom is Among Us
20 Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, 21 nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
Acts 17:26-28
God is Near Us
26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
Matthew 6:9-13
The LORD's Prayer
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’
Genesis 28:10-17
Jacob's Ladder
10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
John 10:9
Jesus is Our Gate to Heaven
9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.
John 14:6
Jesus is the Way to God
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Certainly God is all around us...St. Matthew tells us with the birth of Jesus, that God is with us...St. Paul tells us that is not far from any of us...Jesus tells us that God's Kingdom is even in our midst...If God's Kingdom is among us, then surely He is near and among us...And in Jesus' Prayer, the LORD's Prayer, He tells us that God's will gets done on earth...The same as His will gets done in heaven...Jacob felt the LORD's Presence years ago as he slept alone out in the Near East desert...He dreamed that he was in a stairway to heaven that rested on earth, with the stairway's top reaching heaven...And at the top of the stairs were the angels of God, ascending and descending from the top of the stairway...As he dreamed he felt this stairway to heaven was near the gates of heaven, right in the house of God...Jacob woke up and did not feel alone at all...He felt God, and he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”...
God's Presence can be near us and right beside us, because surely He is all around and we are often not aware of Him...I think the LORD is like this...So gently, so kind, and at the same time so subtle, we can miss Him...He gives us signs that He is around us and with us...He is a God with us...So if God is around us, and with us, and near us, and in our midst, we should have access to Him...Let us seek different ways to feel His Presence...Maybe through someone you have met, or a neighbor, or a friend, He shows us that He is near, and He is with us...Maybe you feel Him in something you have read...We might see His Glory, as we look up at the heavens...Maybe we feel His Son in our heart as the Way to find and seek Him...He says He the Way to heaven, and our Special Gate...Jesus actually called Himself the Gate, and He is our Gate to God, the Only Gate to heaven...