“When you said, Seek my face (panim)
(in prayer, require my presence as your greatest need), my heart said to you,
your face (panim) O Lord, I will seek.”
Psalm 27:8 (AMP)
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give us the Light of the knowledge of the glory and majesty of God [clearly revealed] in the face of Christ.
2 Corinthians 4:6 (AMP)
In the dawn of the garden everything glistening with the ethereal glow of eternity,
You still after speaking galaxies and glaciers and glass blades into being.
Using the power of Your voice to ordain the heartbeat of every living thing.
But now you stoop low, using the power of touch,
To mix particles of divinity and dust.
Holy passion sculpting Imago Dei, birthing the virtue of trust,
The precious privilege of individual choice a crucial must.
The angels leaning in, covering their wings with an adoring hush.
Never before has the Creator designed with such tenderness,
Weaving skin and spirit and sinews in the secret, to be His.
Skilfully planting a seed of His own divine nature from above.
Deep within the human heart, fashioning the capacity for union,
For His royal and infinite love to be their all, their more than enough.
Then imparting the miracle of life, He gently kissed the fragile frame with a Father’s love
Granting the gift of beauty and belonging and being,
Their capacity to reciprocate this extravagance their most sacred offering.
What was it like that moment when Adam opened his eyes for the very first time?
When his own spirit awakened to the inexpressible majesty of the Divine.
Did you say anything, other than “you are mine.”
The first sight he ever beheld was the contours of Your face
Did he marvel, was he mesmerised, did he tremble being in such a holy space?
Did the mere sight of you moved him to the very first human tear, did you embrace?
As you held each other did You also weep with wonder at his birth like any earthly parent in this mysterious place.
Did he reach out and touch the essence of your face?
Or did he simply unravel before Your majesty and stared speechless, undone by Your gaze?
In Hebrew the word for face is panim.
You purposely chose it, for You always desired to be seen.
For us to mirror Your countenance so we can grow in Your glory.
Living face to face, the centre of our purpose and the main narrative of our story.
To be creations of your beauty and holiness and wholeness,
Everything in us sparked by Your love, kindled by the flame of Your Spirit into closeness.
You loved us first, before we could ever love Thee, oh such solace.
In each of us this aching for acceptance and abiding, in each of us embers of divine promise.
But evil slithered in and shifted our face from the Father to the flesh,
And all of a sudden, we are without peace and striving our very best.
To please you and perform for you, your panim completely eclipsed by our sinful mess.
We keep sowing fig leaves of shame and guilt with human sweat on our brow,
Hiding from you, trying to make this pilgrimage on our own somehow.
No longer do we walk in union with You in the garden, in the cool of the day,
We are digging wells in the world, our spirits parched and shrivelling, each going our own way.
Your face become a distant memory, nothing but a mirage as we slowly decay.
Oh Adam, why would you be so foolish to flee
From the presence, the panim of God that was so deeply adoring thee?
The Father gave everything, and you were blameless and free,
Oh, how cunning the enemy who deceived you with such glee
Now His face is hidden from your peripheral, and you are a slave to this sin-stained reversal.
Where you no longer yearn for His face or His provision,
Content to feed on the crumbs of rules and tradition.
But He could not leave you in this poor estate and deplorable condition.
He offers the costliest sacrifice to vanquish the curse,
He will not abandon the works of His hands; He will redeem the whole universe.
In another garden He plants a Cross shaped tree, one that would bring back His countenance to set us free.
This time He gives Himself unreservedly through the life of His Son,
He willingly bears all the brokenness and betrayal, the treason we have begun.
There is not anything we can do but painfully witness how our transgressions impale
His very frame and in the dawn of death, resurrection restores the scale
And once again we can see His face without any veil.
Some might say “I have never seen the panim of God”,
“He has not mediated it to me through the image of Christ so I can be awed”.
But His face comes to us in more than just His human frame,
He is far too infinite to come to us all the same
Way, instead He incarnates every atom and every cell
and offers His expression in every place where the sunlight fell,
His portrait is vivid in ocean spray and mountain peaks, in ladybirds and guinea fowl.
In dancing dandelions and butterfly wings, and what about the wise old owl?
His face is in the flurry of snowflakes and upon rain kissed trees,
In the smiles of those we cherish and in the golden boots of bees.
Every piece of art or music or poetry that moves you, every moment of wonder drawing you to your knees,
He is in every small and every spectacular thing, every sunrise and sunset is an imprint of His
Resplendent radiance beaming with unutterable beauty, every desire and winsome wish,
All His domain and a place to reveal to us His pleasure and playfulness.
No need to squint too long or too far to see His fingerprints.
It is all around us, above us, below us, behind us, before us, and by His Spirit, in us.
If only we will humble ourselves and ask for eyes to behold, to be participants in heaven’s chorus.
Coming back into His Fatherly embrace where we are seen, and His mercy lavishly restores us.