The Voice on the Other End

In 2019, a young Marine named Jake Torres was deployed to Afghanistan for his first tour. Thousands of miles from his family in San Antonio, homesickness hit him like a wall. He called his father one evening, barely holding it together. "Dad, I just need to see you. I need to know you're here."

His father, a retired firefighter named Miguel, couldn't cross oceans. But he did something unexpected. He started calling Jake every single morning at 0600, Afghan time. Same time, same voice, same steady presence. Miguel would pray with him, tell him about the backyard garden, remind him who he was. When Jake couldn't call, Miguel left voicemails — never once missing a day.

Months later, Jake told a chaplain, "My dad couldn't be here in person. But after a while, I stopped needing to see him. I carried his voice with me everywhere. It was like he was more present in those calls than when we sat in the same room."

Philip made the same desperate plea to Jesus: "Lord, show us the Father." He wanted visible, tangible proof. But Jesus redirected him — the Father was already there, revealed in every word Jesus spoke, every work He performed. And then came the deeper promise: the Spirit of truth, an Advocate who would not visit temporarily but dwell within them permanently.

The Almighty does not shout from a distance. He takes up residence.