Wave-tag

God is not far off. To put God in the heavens, beyond reachability, is frankly impossible. God will not be put anywhere. He will put Himself where He pleases as He pleases.
But what pleases Him?
Wait, you mean God experiences pleasure?!?!
Of course! And not only that, God defines True Pleasure. There is no real pleasure--nothing lasting, nothing deep, nothing of any substance--if God is not in it. God, you see, loves pleasure. How do I know? He invented it--and He showed me.
There was one summer afternoon I will never forget. It was summer vacation, and we were staying on a coastal island. I was hiking on the beach with my family to a point on the island where the waves met each other from two different directions. It's simply called The Point.
As I walked along the shore, our destination still a ways off, I began to notice the waves on my left. In they would come, and out they would go, and there was an invitation behind their happy movement. It was Jesus.
His words were not vocal, but I sensed what He was saying. "Wanna play?" As I walked, He and I began to play what I call wave-tag. I would walk along the beach, very close to where the waves would run up onto the shore. As they rushed in, I would run alongside and try to avoid being touched by the water. It was a game with God--He used the waves, trying to get my feet wet as I walked alongside them. He got me a few times. I laughed. He did too. The wind was strong that day--strong and pure and full of life and spirit. But only because His laughter was behind it.
We finally made it to The Point, and it was then He confirmed that my experience with Him wasn't imagined. In the sand, I found a shell that looked like a foot--a strong yet vulnerable human foot with five toes. There was a hole in the heel. A nail might have gone there.
Then I found the bottlecap, which I have to this day. It had inside the messages of one of those "sweepstakes" that soda companies do. But, around that time, they usually said "please try again".
This bottlecap was for me. Inside of it was written, "Please play again." I smiled and nodded to the waves--or rather, to Jesus beyond them. "I'd love to," I thought.
I don't think we play enough. I think God thinks so too. After that experience I had once upon a time on a windy summer beach, I wonder how often God longs to play with us, but we're too busy, too grown-up, too good to play with Him. I wonder how many of us are missing The Point of life--that God's Pleasure is what everything is pointed towards, and that He longs to share such Pleasure with us.
Wave-tag, you see, was simply a form of tangible intimacy with God--and He longs to play again.