Clouds can be a few thousand feet or several miles from earth. At its closest approach to earth, our moon is 225,623 miles away. This month Venus, our nearest planet, will be almost 27 million miles away. The sun is always roughly 93 million miles from us, while our next nearest star is over 4 light-years distant. So how far away is heaven?
Isaiah 57:15 says God is both very far away and very near―
For this is what the high and exalted One says—He who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.”
Jesus was very near when He walked the earth millennia ago, but He returned to heaven. Two angels told His disciples to expect Jesus’ imminent return. Did they regularly scan the sky after that announcement, wondering if this or that cloud might soon reveal Him?
Meanwhile they waited and prayed, and the promised Holy Spirit came. They preached and witnessed and taught and fellowshipped. And kept on waiting and praying.
Prayer was their instant connection to Him. They continued to look to heaven for everything―wisdom and guidance, dealing with threats, grace to endure, salvation and help for others, knowledge, discernment, advancement of the Gospel, supernatural power, spiritual growth. They looked nowhere else. “The Lord is near to all who call on him.” (Ps. 145:18)