Anyone who has attempted to listen to two (or more) conversations at once can relate to a question my son asked when he was about nine years old. As he was preparing for bed one night and about to pray with his mom and me, he looked up with a puzzled expression. "How can God listen to my prayers if millions of other kids are praying right now too?"
 
My guess is that many adults have pondered this same question without venturing to voice it, though occasionally I meet someone curious enough or brave enough to ask it aloud. What thrills me about this query is that it opens the door to some profound theological truths that can expand our view of God's transcendent splendor and assure us of His personal, undivided attention to our prayers! These truths can draw us deeper into trust and worship of Him.
 
Because we humans experience time as a single, one-directional "line" along which our physical life progresses from beginning to end, we can only communicate with one another sequentially, one after another. Thanks to remarkable advances in technology, we can now communicate simultaneously with a global audience almost as easily as we can with one friend standing in front of us. With or without technology, however, we cannot handle overlapping conversations any more than we can read two pages in two different books at the same moment and with full attention to each.
 
By contrast, the God who brought this universe into existence and continuously holds it together is not and cannot be contained within it. According to Scripture, God existed and acted "before the beginning of time" (2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 1:2). By His transcendent power and purpose, He created not only matter and energy but also the space and time in which matter and energy unfurl (Genesis 1:1; Hebrews 11:3). Both the Bible and scientific investigation present us with the reality of a Being who has the capacity to create our familiar time dimension and fix its direction, a Being who possesses unlimited time capacities!
 
For the sake of our limited imagination, however, let's consider what is possible for God if He were to access even just a two-dimensional time frame. If we liken time dimensions to space dimensions, we can picture this two-dimensional time frame as a plane of time, a flat sheet with length and width, something like an edgeless sheet of paper. On this plane, God can extend a perpendicular time line from any point, any moment, along the time line you and I are moving along. On this perpendicular time line, God can give individual, undivided attention to your words and my words-and to any number of other prayers simultaneously. None of us need be concerned that our words will be drowned out. And in this moment, in this communication, we are being heard and attended to by the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving Creator of the universe, our Savior and Lord. This is why I consider prayer as the most potent spiritual resource God has granted to us humans. Our link with Him is more direct and constant than any high-speed Wi-Fi connection!
 
Obviously God has options far beyond this notion of a time plane. He can create and access time dimensions, as well as space dimensions, at will. What's more, He is free to operate without any limitations at all, completely independent of space-time dimensions. However, this simple illustration can at least offer us some reassurance that God truly can and does attend to us at every moment and in every situation of our life. Sometimes I go so far as to imagine our prayer lines resonating in some special way when we pray in unison or in harmony with fellow believers! Whatever the case may be, this illustration gives new meaning to King David's burst of joy and wonder:
 
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast the sum of them!
Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.
(Psalm 139:17-18)
 
 
Note from the editor:
Dr. Hugh Ross and the Reasons to Believe Ministry (www.reasons.org) that he founded carry on one of the most strategic ministries in the world both to skeptics and believers. He and his scientist colleagues share the increasingly astounding results of modern science that demonstrate so powerfully and mind-bogglingly the existence and attributes of our almighty, all-loving and all-wise Creator. Please pray for this unique ministry according to these requests that RTB has sent to us:

1. Sufficient fiscal year-end donations to fund the "good works" God has "prepared in advance for us to do."
2. Wisdom in developing plans for both our Conference Center and media studio.
3. Spiritual discernment and impact in our interactions with another ministry with which we are striving to dialogue .
4. Development of kingdom-advancing ministry partnerships.
5. That God will keep us safe AND make us dangerous!