Wright begins by describing four desires we each have which reveal “echoes of a voice”: justice, spirituality, relationships, and beauty. We all long for these things, but we can’t quite grasp them in their fullness, nor can we quite articulate them. Why do we long for them? Why do we all seem to desire these things that we can’t reach? And what should we say about them? In Wright’s estimation, we could attribute them to “childish fantasies”, something to be overcome so we can live in the world as it really is; we could say that it is a vision of a separate world, “a world where we really belong,” in which everything is as it should be;

Or we can say, if we like, that the reason we have these dreams, the reason we have a sense of a memory of the echo of a voice, is that there is someone speaking to us, whispering in our inner ear — someone who cares very much about this present world and our present selves… (9)

It is, of course, this third explanation that Wright endorses, one he describes in terms of points of contact between heaven and earth, places where the two intersect. He describes many places and ways that we see this happen: the burning bush, the tabernacle, the temple, the Incarnation, and the indwelling of the Spirit.

He describes the Trinity, Israel, the Church, and the Believer in terms of this intersection, all the while referring back to the four echoes. He does a wonderful way of painting a picture of the Christian life that relies on the Spirit, on that point of intersection, to guide and sustain it. This is one which, along with Knowing God, I’ll be reading again.