Main news for 1 June 2026

A meeting on the road with a messenger of God who blocks that road is an extraordinary event, as is a donkey speaking with a human voice. The easiest thing would be to regard this story as a pious legend, if not for one 'but': the world has far more dimensions than we usually think.

In our fallen world, talking animals, apart from parrots, are impossible, as are angels walking along roads. But the Bible gives us examples of encounters with angels precisely in everyday reality. Abraham, for example, met God's messengers while he was simply sitting by his own tent. What is this: mysticism? A miracle?

A miracle, without question: if by miracle we mean God's direct intervention in a situation, an intervention 'over' the existing laws of nature, then this is exactly a miracle. And a talking animal is also a miracle. But there is no need to speak of mysticism. Mysticism would be possible if God from the beginning had divided the world into parts that did not touch, or barely touched, one another, so that one could look from one part into another only through something like a keyhole. Then mysticism would indeed be that peeping through the keyhole at a life not meant for us human beings.

Only God did not create a divided world. He created it whole, and others divide it now - those who oppose Him. If we suddenly see the world as the Creator intended it, it becomes for us the Kingdom of God: for the world is one, and there is one King in it. Yet it is not at all easy for fallen humanity to see this wholeness. It is even impossible to see it unless God shows it; and if He shows it, then angels and talking animals may appear in the world beside human beings.

Yet in the present state of the world, God needs special and weighty reasons to allow fallen humanity to see the world as, without the fall, it would see it every day. For example, the stubbornness of a prophet of God who, in the situation that has arisen, must not be stubborn at all, first of all for his own good - and also for the task set by God.