这 is a latecomer — classical Chinese pointed with 此 and 是. When vernacular writing needed the spoken 'this', it recycled a character meaning 'to meet on the road': walking 辶 toward the thing right here. Proximity as a journey completed.
这 anchors here-and-now Chinese: 这里 here, 这个 this one, 这样 this way, 这么 so/this much. Spoken fast it becomes zhèi — 这个 zhèige is the filler word of every Chinese speech, the 'um' that points at nothing.
Walk 辶 right up to the writing 文 in front of you — THIS one.
这 appears in the top-10 most frequent Chinese characters — you cannot point at anything without it.