The Face of God

Read: Psalm 80

How often have wanted to shout at God, "Where are you"?! My guess is that at some point or another we have all wondered where God was. At the moment, it just didn't feel as if God was anywhere near us; even if our faith told us that God was right beside us all the time. In those moments, how wondrous it would be for us to catch even a glimpse of God's face. How wondrous it would be to have visual verification that God was indeed right beside us.

Psychologist Erik Erikson believed, though, that we do receive that visual verification. He wrote that one of human beings' fiirst encounters with the Divine is through the loving face of our mother, father, or whoever our primary caregiver was as infants. It is in the face of unconditional love and acceptance that we have the verification that God is indeed nearby. This extends further than our infancy though. Whenever we experience unconditional love and tenderness--love beyond boundaries--we experience the face and reality of God. It is that love and tenderness that draws us nearer to God.

With these experiences, though, comes a challenge. The unfortunate reality is that there are a great many in our world who have seldom, if ever, experienced unconditional love and tenderness from anyone. There are a great many people who experience growing up without someone being for them the "face of God". I cannot imagine how haunting of a feeling that must be--to feel unloved. Yet there are those who know that feeling all to well; those who cannot imagine what it would be like to be loved unconditionally. As those who have experienced this unconditional love and have seen the face of God in someone else, I believe God calls us to be God's shining face for those around us. This can be something as simple as an acknowledgement of someone's presence; anything that can convey to someone else that they are loved for who they are, not condemned for who they aren't.

For your spiritual exercise today, I want to encourage you to do two things. The first thing is to sit back and to imagine God's face, full of love, tenderness, and complete acceptance, shining squarely on YOU. Allow that thought and image to pervade your imagination for awhile as you bask in the warmth of God's love for you. The second thing I want to invite and encourage you do is to be the face of God for someone else today. Be the one who looks upon someone else with love and compassion. Be the one to acknowledge someone's presence. Be the one to show someone else that God is nearby, even if they don't immediately recognize it. God is all around us--and we see God through one another.