2077. That 'Abraham said to God' means the Lord's perception from love is clear from the meaning of 'saying to God' as perceiving, dealt with quite often already. That 'Abraham' here means the Lord when passing through that state and that age has been stated above in 1989. The Lord, it is evident, uttered this out of love, for the actual words used, 'O that Ishmael might live before You!' are an expression of an affection originating in love. The Lord's affection or love was Divine; that is to say, it was directed towards the whole human race which He desired, through the union of His Human Essence with the Divine Essence, to join completely to Himself and save eternally. Concerning that love see Volume One, in 1735; concerning the fact that the Lord out of this love contended constantly with the hells, 1690, 1789, 1812; and concerning the fact that in the union of His Human with the Divine His sole regard was nothing other than the conjunction of the Divine with the human race, 2034 above.

[2] The nature of the Lord's love surpasses all human understanding and is unbelievable in the extreme to people who do not know what heavenly love is in which angels abide. To save a soul from hell the angels think nothing of giving their own lives; indeed if it were possible they would suffer hell themselves in place of that soul. Consequently their inmost joy is to transport into heaven someone rising from the dead. They confess however that that love does not originate one little bit in themselves but that every single aspect of it does so in the Lord alone. Indeed they are incensed if anyone thinks anything different.

1277. The same applies to men as regards their souls, which are linked constantly to some community of spirits or angels. Men too have a position in the Lord's kingdom that is determined by the nature of their life and by their states. The fact that on earth men are distant from one another makes no difference at all. Even though many thousands of miles should separate them, they can still be present together in one community - those who live in charity in one angelic community, those who live in hatred and the like in one community in hell. Nor in like manner does the fact that many people on earth exist together in the same place make any difference - they are still all distinct and separate according to the nature of their life and of their states, each one possibly in a different community from the rest. When people who are several hundreds or thousands of miles distant from one another are seen with the eyes of internal sense they are so close that some are in a position to touch one another. Thus if a number of people existed on earth whose internal sight was open they would be able to be together and talk together even though one was in India and another in Europe, as I have also been shown. So every single person on earth is very present with the Lord, beneath His view and Providence.