Heart Tracks - Hand To Mouth Or Face To Face?

     I love the hand of God, and all the good things that He gives us by it.  Yet, I think too often, His hand is all we ever get to see, perhaps even want to see.  We're so desirous of securing the "good things" that come from it, that our sight never goes any higher, or deeper.  It's a tragic omission.  In His hand, we may see the fruits of His heart, but it's in His face that we see His hearts fullness.

    For as long as I've been in the church, I've heard sung that great old chorus, "What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see."  We sing that most often as some future hope, something to be realized one day, in heaven.  Though in eternity we will see Him in the fullness of His glory, we can, and He longs for us to, see Him now, in the face and heart of Christ.  That day of beholding is now, today.  For you, for me, for us.
    I've a friend who spoke about the prodigal son and his returning home to his father.  He said that for the prodigal, coming home didn't happen when he got to the literal house of his father, but when his father ran to him on the road, after seeing him from far off, and swept him into his arms and embrace.  When that happened, the prodigal was home.  He'd begun that journey hoping to receive something from his father's hand, but ended it when he was taken up in his father's embrace, and looked into his face and heart.  We, like the prodigal, come to Him, week after week, even day after day, looking for something from His hand, while all the while He calls us to look into His face, and behold, and experience the love, the glory, and the wonder He has for us there.  We live hand to mouth, and not face to face.
   How would our lives be transformed if we lived face to Face, presence to Presence with Him?  How would our homes, marriages, families, occupations and ministries be transformed if we began to live that way?  2 Corinthians 3:18 reads, "We all, with open face beholding....the glory of the Lord."  Beholding and laying hold of.  Oswald Chambers said that when we look into His face in total surrender, about all things and with all things placed before Him, "the glory will remain all through."  That means that how we live, relate, and minister, will be filled with His glory.  Chambers said "A Christian worker is one who perpetually looks in the face of God and then goes forth to talk to people."  In essence, a Christian is then one who perpetually looks into His face, and then is able to face not only all people, but all things.

   How are we now living?  Hand to mouth, or face to face?  Are we living content with His hand, and missing the fullness of His heart and life?  Or, have we found that life of living face to face with Him, knowing that home is not just where we're going, but where we've come to....in Him.  His heart is our home and we may see that in His face.  Have we found that?  Do we see that?

Blessings,
Pastor O