One Booth Away: From Proximity to Presence

When You said, “Seek My face,” My heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.” Psalm 27:8

Recently, a friend and I decided to meet for lunch.  We agreed on the restaurant and the time.  “If you get there before I do,” he instructed, “get a booth by the windows in the back.”

I arrived about ten minutes early and, not seeing his car in the parking lot, assumed he hadn’t arrived yet. When the hostess greeted me, I asked for a booth by the windows in the back.

I sat in that booth, sipping coffee and occasionally checking my watch. Ten minutes passed. Then twenty. Finally, my phone rang

“Where are you?” my friend asked, thinking I’d gone to the wrong restaurant.

“I’m in a booth by the windows in the back,” I replied. “Where are you?’

“That’s where I am. Where are you?”

Confused, I stood, looked toward the entrance, and then scanned the room.

“I don’t see …”  And as I turned around, there he was.  One booth away.

We were both in the right restaurant, the right section, the right kind of seat. We had proximity. What we didn't have — for almost half an hour — was an encounter. Proximity does not guarantee an encounter. Encounter requires us to be face-to-face.

In His Face

Days later, I was still thinking about that day, wondering how often, in our personal times with the Lord or in a worship gathering, we miss the encounter because we’re near, but not face-to-face?  We’re in the room, but not in the same “booth.” How often does God want to reveal Himself to us in ways we have never imagined, but we miss it because of where we’re positioned or how we are postured.

How often do we settle for proximity to God because we’re unwilling to make a small shift?  How often do we want to encounter Him on our terms? We wait for God to come where we are, while He is inviting us to come where He is.

  How often do we miss the true encounter because we have an expectation rooted in what we’ve always done or how God has revealed Himself in the past? How often do we settle for nearness when God is drawing us into deeper places of intimacy with Him. You see, encounters are up close and personal—in His face.

The Hebrew word for face is “panim,” and it carries a richness that goes far beyond our English understanding. While it means "face," it is most often translated as presence.   To come into God’s presence literally means to “Come before His face.”  

In the ancient Hebrew mind, presence was never about occupying the same space. It was about orientation—whose face you are turned toward.

When David declared, "Your face, LORD, I will seek" (Psalm 27:8), he was longing for God’s presence; he was pursuing an intimate relationship with the Lord. David knew that God was omnipresent, but he sought God’s manifest presence. He wanted God to make Himself known in tangible, personal ways that David could recognize and respond to in worship, faith, and obedience.

Throughout Scripture, God invites His people to seek His face—to seek His Presence, with the promise that if we seek Him with all our heart,  He makes Himself known to us in unmistakable, undeniable, overwhelming, intimate, life-changing ways.

The More We Know Him, The More We Seek Him

Exodus 33 is one of the most beautiful examples of intimacy and tells us something about our God and the relationship He desires with us.

The LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend." Exodus 33:11

God invited Moses into an intimate encounter—two friends, faces turned toward each other in sweet communion. That became the norm for Moses! He regularly went to the Tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting—God’s “booth”—to commune with Him.

After experiencing these extraordinary moments of communion, Moses prayed, "Please, show me Your glory" (Exodus 33:18) because that's the nature of genuine encounter. The more the Lord reveals Himself to us, the more we long to know of Him.  I believe Moses’ posture so delighted God that He was willing to give Moses the desire of his heart—a glimpse of His glory!

It’s important to note that when Moses asked to see God's glory, God was very specific: "Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock" (Exodus 33:21). Not just a place. A place by Me. Not a place in the general vicinity but on the rock. This was Moses’ "booth in the back by the windows."  If he hadn’t been in the place, he would have missed God’s revelation.

Encounters require more than general obedience; they require exact positioning.

We can be in the room, but not in God's designated “booth,” and miss the glory.

Transformed by Presence, Not Proximity

Jacob learned this lesson at Bethel as he fled from Esau. He woke from a dream and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I knew it not" (Genesis 28:16). God's presence had filled that place all night long — and Jacob slept through it. He was near, but that wasn't enough.

It was a different story when Jacob returned home. When he wrestled through the night with the "Man",  he named the place Peniel, saying, "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved" (Genesis 32:30).

Bethel gave him proximity; Peniel gave him encounter — and only one of them brought true transformation.  He entered the encounter as Jacob and left as Israel. His encounter changed him. We see this throughout Scripture:

Moses met God face-to-face and reflected His glory.

Jacob met God face-to-face and received a new identity.

Paul writes that “we all, with unveiled face, behold, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord and are transformed into the same image from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Face-to-face encounters always produce transformation.

Proximity or Encounter?

I reflected on my lunch with my friend and realized that moving one booth made all the difference. Once I shifted from being near him to being with him, everything changed. We were in one another’s presence—face-to-face—and true fellowship began.  We ate; we talked; we laughed.  I shared what had been going on with me.  He shared what had been going on with him. The questions and concerns I had were addressed, and I received wisdom and strategy. I believe we both were encouraged.  I left in a better state than I was when I arrived.

Maybe the Lord is asking you the same question my friend asked me: “Where are you?” It’s not because He doesn’t know, and it’s not because you’re in a “bad” place. He asks because He longs for you to encounter Him in ways you never have before, and that requires a change of position and posture.

God is inviting you—inviting us all— to a new place—His holy “booth”— for a face-to-face encounter.

And when you behold His face, you can never be the same!

Deborah