The Face Of God Series

John Mcgee Jr. wrote the poem High Flight. It is so meaningful to

some pilots, they repeat it as they sit in their planes soaring though

the skies. It goes like this-

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds-and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of-wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence.-Hov'ring there,

I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, or even eagle flew.

And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

Flight does link man with the angels but it does not get man any closer to

God. It is only poetic license to say you can fly so high as to touch the face of

God. Man could never reach that high but the message of Christmas is, God

stooped low enough to literally allow men to touch His face.

On Christmas day God did embrace

The planet earth with loving grace,

Making Bethlehem the birth place

Of Jesus who revealed God's face.

When Mary pressed the soft warm cheeks of baby Jesus to her own, she

was touching the face of God. When the shepherds and the wise men came to

see Jesus they were seeing the face of God. Christmas is about the face of

God. Before Christmas God was veiled, and men were not allowed to come

into His presence to see His face. Whenever God did, on rare occasions, let

men see His presence, they were terrified of His glory. But on Christmas God

entered human flesh where men could see Him face to face and not be afraid.

Nothing is less fearful than seeing a baby.

Jesus grew from His baby face childhood to mature manhood, and by

degrees He exposed man to His Deity. Three of the disciples saw the glory of

His divine face on the Mt. of Transfiguration where we read in Matt. 17:2,

"there He was transfigured before them. His face shown like the sun..." This

glory was shown only to a few, for that was not the face Jesus came to show

the world. One day all the redeemed will see their Savior face to face in all

it's splendor. But this is the face He will have in His second coming. His first

coming-His Christmas coming, revealed to us the face of God which is more

practical for life in our fallen world. It was a face of compassion and love; a

face of mercy and understanding. It was the face of a friend.

Christmas is unique in all of history for it was the day God let men see His

face, and begin to know Him as He really is. Jesus was the light of the world,

the light that lit up the face of God for man to see their Creator. This is what

Paul was getting at in verse 6, "for God, who said, let light shine out of

darkness, made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the

knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."

How do we know who God is, and how He feels about us and His lost

world? Where do we go to get this kind of knowledge? Do we go to the

Information Super Highway? No, we go to the face of Christ-the face first

seen on the first Christmas morning.

Robert Coles wrote a fascinating book titled, The Spiritual Life of

Children. He is a Harvard Univ. professor who has written about the inner

life of children like no other author. He has studied children around the

world in all different cultures. One of the things he does is to get children to

draw the face of God. Jewish and Muslim children will not do it, for they are

taught not to make pictures of God. But Christian children all over the world

feel free to make pictures of God. Why? Because for Christians, God has

shown His face to the world in Jesus Christ. All the religions of the world

have invisible gods, but Christianity has a visible God; a God who was seen

and touched. That is what the incarnation was all about. God became visible

in flesh so men could see Him face to face.

Professor Coles has 293 pictures of God, and all but 38 are of His face.

When Christian children visualize God they primarily see His face. All

around the world, artist in every land and culture paint the face of Jesus.