Running Towards His Smile

      It started with a footnote. Two little lines at the end of Psalm 16 as translated by Brian Simmons in the Passion Translation. Here's what it said: "There is no Hebrew word for 'presence.' When the psalmist wanted to speak of God's presence he used the word for 'face.'"
     It's hard to describe what happened to me when I read those words, but one thing for sure is that I was drawn into a deeper place of intimacy with Papa as I meditated on the difference between the rather impersonal sounding "presence of God" and the much more intimate sounding "face of God." I thought of one of the theme passages of my life, Exodus 33:14-15 and how different it sounds to read it when we hear God saying, "My face will go with you, and I will give you rest," and to read Moses' response as "If we can't see your face, don't send us up from here." I thought of the lyrics to the Paul Wilbur song, "Show Me Your Face." (Which you can view by clicking here.) And I thought of the chorus to a worship song I wrote a few years back, "Face to Face."
          So we will run, we will hide, we will rest in your grace.
          We will laugh, we will dance in your loving embrace.
          For you are willing, and you are waiting
          To meet us face to face.
     I thought, too, of the amazing truth that as a believer my spirit is constantly gazing upon God's face through the Holy Spirit. We really do live in the constant state of meeting God face to face!
     Papa showed me part of the significance of this yesterday as I watched our newest grandson, Kai, show me how he can walk. I noticed something I'd never caught before: as Kai walked into his daddy's arms, he was looking intently at his daddy's smiling face the entire time. Not once did he look at his feet, not once did look at me to see if I was watching. He simply ran towards his daddy's smile.
     I wonder what it would look like to look at Daddy's face and run towards Daddy's smile....

Looking at His face, running towards His smile, even while deeply aware today of how broken our world is and how so many today need our prayers and not our explanations.

Tom, one of Abba's little children