Several times in scripture the Lord says – ‘seek my face.’ And it made me wonder – how peculiar of a command to make to a people who would never, and had never physically seen His face.
What does this mean?
Our faces are designed in His image – the intricate lines and features are the distinctive attributes we carry that define us, make us unique. When we think of His features and His face – what are we seeking after?
‘Seek my face.’
Notice how He doesn’t say – when you’re up for it, or when the right time comes – seek my face. He states it as a command.
Do this, do it urgently, do it passionately, don’t be idle. Seek out who I am, desire to know the lines of my face – my holiness, my mercy, my forgiveness. Desire with great ambition to be more like me, to represent my love to the world.
This thought really came to mind after the loss of our daughter. The first time I read ‘seek my face’ – I thought, I know what that kind of seeking feels like. I know the urgency to capture every single second…every single minute detail of the lines of someone’s face – as if the moments were turning to ash – because they were. I want the passion to know and remember and be captivated by every single detail of Jesus’ face like I was when I saw Charlotte – wanting to memorize every feature, to engrain the memory of my beloved in my mind.
Jesus wants us to identify with who He is in the intimacy of His features – He wants us to desperately know each detail, recall each aspect of who He is.
I want to be a daughter of the King who remembers, and seeks out all He is.
I think that God used this language because he knew that as humans our facial features are such a defining factor of our individuality, the most visual representation of who we are. But, why can’t I seek God’s face with the same urgency that I sought after my daughter’s – not wanting to miss a moment, keeping my eyes wide with anticipation, why can’t I?
Well, many times I believe that life gets in the way – but I know it’s because I let it. My eyes aren’t fixed enough on eternity, they’re more fixed on what’s temporal – some of it is my humanness, but some of it is that I don’t fully realize the magnitude of what I’m missing by not being eternally-focused. I’m so devastatingly flawed, but by God’s grace and mercy – I am beginning to see many things in new light.
There is a freshness to each day that He alone is helping me to see.
Today, I’m choosing to seek His face, and rest in the thought that he’s cradling the face of my sweet little girl in His hands.
upheld 