The last few years have changed how we work, in so many ways. At the height of the global lockdown, something that was universally adapted was the concept of remote working. However, with people now returning to a near-normal way of life and work, it’s amazing how we have made remote working a new normal. For me, when I went to the office after a long time it felt strange to see a lot of people face-to-face.
There were people I met for the very first time in person, but I had met them on countless video calls for several months. It was a strange feeling because I have been working with them for quite some time and I knew I could know their voice, I could recognize their face, and I even knew their role in the organization. There was a sense of familiarity and yet I was filled with a sense of novelty when I saw them in person.
This made me wonder if this would be the same feeling that I would get when I see Jesus face-to-face. In many ways, we know the character of God, we know the position he holds in the heavenly realms, and we know how much he loves us. We read his words, we know his works, and we talk about him with our family and friends. Yet will we have the same sense of familiarity when we meet him face-to-face?
This made me search for words in the Bible about how we can recognize God when we see him face-to-face. I have heard preachers talk about how they encounter God daily. Maybe we encounter God when we entertain strangers or maybe we encounter God when we clothe the naked or feed the hungry or even give shelter to the homeless. In those circumstances, the face of God takes on the face of the person who is being helped but does that really mean that is how God really looks like?
I was stumped at the answer because I could not find anywhere in the Scriptures that described how God looks like. The Bible does not talk about the physical features of God. Exodus 33:20 was a verse that I kept reading and re-reading to understand what God was trying to tell Moses. Of course, God is not a cruel God who would smite us if we wanted to see his face because I am sure we will meet him face-to-face when we all rise again. On the contrary, it is about recognizing God, here and now, not in the context of appearance but recognizing him through our walk with Him.
We certainly will never have any technology connecting us to him as we are so used to these days. Instead, we can recognize him by drawing near to him through the reading and meditation of God’s word.
Reading God’s word by far is the best way to hear his words. John 10:3-4 says this, ‘The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to His voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him, because they know his voice.”
Indeed, we can recognize him because we are His sheep, and we know his voice. As we commune with him every day, we tune our hearts to hear his voice and recognize it. In the chaos of this world where our hearts and minds are constantly hit with the worldly wisdom and voice of the influencers, we need to tune our hearts to hear his still small voice.
God’s Presence
Psalm 139 talks about how God knows us and how he is present everywhere. There is no place that is hidden from his eyes and no matter how far away we are from his presence, his hands will hold us. This verse just blew my mind. I read this Psalm every day and yet when I read it from the context of recognizing him, it seems like a moot point because if I cannot recognize his presence still, there is something not right. He continues to dwell with us and within us.
Jesus, the Image of the Invisible God
If I had lived during the biblical times, I would have drawn comfort from the fact that I have seen God as Paul writes in Colossians 1:1 that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. This makes me envy the people who have seen Christ when he dwelt physically among them during his earthly life and beheld his Glory (John 1:14)
This all brings me back to the point about recognizing him. The more I look at this, I come back to the conclusion that it is not about physically recognizing him, although this would be a great privilege. However, it is all about being attentive to his words. And there is only one way we can recognize him, and that is through reading and meditating on his words and living in accordance with his words.
And unlike in our work where our colleagues do not know what we do after we switch off the video call, his presence is ever present in our lives, in our joys and our sorrows, in our triumphs and our tribulations. It is in those moments of sorrows and tribulations, the words from John 14:17 offer hope: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” We know and recognize him, because he dwells in us, always.
