I must always remember that I can no more approach God than an infant can approach his mother. When the baby sees its mother several feet away, he tries to reach her by stretching out his tiny arms toward her. But it is Mom who goes the distance and makes the connection. In the same way, my human capacity to reach across the great divide between the finite and the infinite is eternally inadequate. But from God’s perspective, the gap doesn’t exist at all. Like a loving mother, our Mother-God is ever present.
Because of his mother’s faithfulness, the child of the loving mother soon becomes convinced that his reach is sufficient, and in a way he’s right, isn’t he? In the same way, all I need to do in order to reach God is to reach for God. I should do myself a favor to memorize this line: To reach for God is to reach God. I will have to remind myself of this whenever I feel tempted to believe that God will only come to me if I find the magic book, say the magic formula and become the perfect pray-er. I should trust that God is present to me any time I stretch out my feeble little spiritual arms.
— Mark E. Thibodeaux, S.J., Armchair Mystic