Tis the season for ever changing weather. One day it’s 70 and sunny, and the next it’s snowing. If I’m honest, I hate the inconsistency more than I hate the cold. It has me longing for those long summer days, laying on a blanket in the yard just basking in the sunlight. When you close your eyes but there is still so much brightness through your eyelids that you’re almost convinced darkness doesn’t exist anymore. I know a lot of people love the look of a good suntan, but personally I just love the feel of the warmth on my skin. It feels healing to my depths.
Jesus said countless times that He is the light. As I was laying in my hammock on one unusually warm day back in February, reading one such passage, I really started to question what that meant. I wrote in my journal “basking in the sunlight you are visibly different with a tan; when you bask in the Son’s light you should see evidence (like a tan).” My initial thought was that there should be evidence both in your actions and in the joy that exudes from you. I still think these are both absolutely true and biblical, BUT the Lord has had me sitting in awe as He has unveiled a much deeper analogy and beautiful reality.
Several weeks later I was reading through my daily devotional and stumbled upon the fact that Moses’s face SHINED: “the skin of his face was shining [with a unique radiance] because he had been speaking with God,” – Exodus 34:29 AMP. WOW! Did I really just read that right? I had read this passage before, but I had not noticed that wild bit of information. Beyond the idea of actions or joy, Moses quite literally looked different, and his face was so bright that he had to veil it in front of other people! How perfectly does this fit with my question of how we should look different?
But then I question: Lord, what does that mean for us now? I want to experience this firsthand, but how? Late one night I read through 2 Corinthians 3 and a corresponding commentary, and it brought me to a place of anger and frustration. It seemed to me that Paul, and more likely the author of that commentary, was telling me I couldn’t experience this. Now I’ll be the first to admit, I don’t see people walking around with their faces shining every day. But does that mean it isn’t possible? Nope! I refuse to believe that. And let me tell y’all I have heard SO many comments lately that would lead me to believe this IS STILL our reality? A few examples:
- About a woman laying down a 30-year burden one morning at church: “It was like a ray of sunlight focused on her [at the altar] and she just looked so different afterwards, full of light and joy.”
- About a man who was experiencing the Lord in a new and magnified way: “He looked different, like he had been on vacation.” The immediate thought that pops into my mind: You know how you look after most vacations? TAN!
- About the church as a whole and those individuals experiencing a sense of revival: “I see His beauty reflected on His people’s faces.”
So, after feeling convicted of my frustration and anger, I went back to 2 Corinthians for another look, and gosh friends its BEAUTIFUL! Paul talks about how the glory (which I’ve noticed in a lot of scriptures glory is directly connected with the concept of light) of the Old Testament law-based covenant has come to an end; it doesn’t bind us anymore. But if THAT glory was enough to cause Moses’s face to shine so bright that he had to hide it, HOW MUCH MORE will this new ministry of the Spirit have a bright and radiant glory?
Paul sums it up beautifully with verse 18: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” That word behold, means we reflect God’s image like a mirror, and throughout scripture God’s face is light! We don’t have to veil our faces and hide like Moses did! We can be BOLD in sharing the LIGHT that Christ has given us. I don’t typically reference the Message, but on occasion it can give such a beautiful perspective, and in this case, I have to share: ‘Nothing between us and God, our face shining with the brightness of his face. And so, we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.”
THIS is the God I’m sold out to! THIS is the reality of His gospel that I want to lay my life down for. I want THIS! I want to experience my life becoming brighter and more beautiful, becoming more like Him! And the way we become more like him? Spending time with Him, in the word, and in prayer!
As I sit tonight in the light of the fire in my living room, I’m still longing for the warmth of those long summer days, but now I’m also dreaming of the glory of eternity in His presence. I’m imagining how bright His face will be, and ours also as we directly reflect the fullness of His glory! It’s going to be magnificent, and I can’t wait. But for now, on this side of eternity, we get to experience the reflection of His glory, and the way to see more of it is by spending time in His presence: basking in the Son’s light.
If you want to read more for yourself, here are some related verses that the Lord has been encouraging me with:
- Numbers 6:24-26
- Psalm 89:15-16
- Psalm 31:16
- Luke 1:78-79
- Matthew 17:2
- John 8:12
- John 12:35-36
- Ephesians 5:8
- 1 Peter 2:9
- Judges 5:31
- 1 Corinthians 13:12
- Isaiah 60:19
- Revelation 22:5
All scripture references are ESV unless otherwise noted.