Glory

A view of the eternal is always dangerous. When you get to see what you've longed for, nothing else is ever the same. Ask Moses: he wanted to see God's glory up close, and the Lord said yes, at least some of it. In Exodus 33 God says "Yes, you can see my back but not my face -- nobody can see my face and live!" And so he passed by Moses, who got a glimpse of the glory of God. Moses had been a big fan of God before this, but after that his face was shining so brightly that he scared the Israelites (Ex. 34:29-35).

Moses' radiance was so scary that he had to cover up his face in front of the people, but he took off his mask when he went in to speak with God. There, he could just be himself, so to speak, and the two of them would share some time of instruction, listening and even friendship (see Ex. 33:11). Moses had been seeking to know, understand and be intimate with God for so long that he yearned to see more -- and he got the privilege of doing so.

Much later, a whole group of people got to see God's glory up close -- this time, not for an instant, and not the "back" of God, but his face: his early followers. John tells us in 1:14 "So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son." Those lucky disciples...they saw the face of God in the flesh -- because God was not content to be known intimately by only one person, but wanted to become known by many. The disciples, like Moses, got to converse with him as friends and to just be themselves (as embarrassing as that was sometimes). They, too, were changed by the experience; later, when they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke boldly of Jesus to all around, including hostile authorities, people recognized they had "been with Jesus" (Acts 4:13). They had taken on some of the qualities of Jesus and were reflecting those to others.

At Christmas time, we get to celebrate the coming of God to be with us in our weakness and problems as humans. And since he related to us so closely, Jesus already knows what humans are like. He isn't repelled by us. So if we want to spend all day with God and just talk with him, we can. If we have the courage to "take the mask off" and just be there, face to face and sharing everything with him, we can. We will see a bit of the glory of God -- and we won't die in the process, but we will be changed. And that's risky. We might turn out like Moses or the disciples. When you get a bit of the glory of God, it will change you.

Here's to seeing God's glory!