Advent Day 18, December 18, 2024
The above photo shows the view from my kitchen window yesterday morning. At this time of year, with the leaves gone, I can usually see the traffic below on one of the busiest roads into the city, but not yesterday. Fog snaked low across the valley before descending over the road and then creeping up the mountainside to engulf our house. It was intriguing to watch how quickly it traveled while still hiding what was behind it, and I thought of God, Moses, veiled faces, mystery, and waiting.
This scripture passage from the Old Testament came to mind:
When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud. To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. (Exodus 24:15-18)
Fog. Cloud. The glory of a hidden God. A call and an answer. A revealing.
The Old Testament is filled with imagery of a hidden God, one wrapped in clouds, or smoke, or fog, or burning bushes. Such a God doesn’t seem very approachable, even when summoned, as Moses discovered, grateful for the veil he wore over his face for protection. Watching the fog, I wondered how often we sense that God’s face is hidden, turned from us, perhaps when we are at our lowest point, or feeling forgotten, or continuing to wait for an answer to a prayer, or when we can’t seem to reach God no matter how hard we try, when all we hear is silence. Sometimes God does seem to prefer smoke and clouds.
Then I wondered how often we veil our own faces from God, or turn away, because we feel ashamed, guilty, angry, resentful, unworthy to be seen by the one who created us. Or we hear an invitation to sit in God’s presence but ignore it because it’s just too much trouble and we have too much doubt and too much to do to go sit on a mountaintop for any amount of time.
All of these crisscrossing thoughts led me to Advent and this period of waiting. I imagine that what we are all really waiting for—in so many different ways—is for the fog to lift, the cloud to dissipate, the fire to smolder so that the face of God, the face of Love, can be seen, no matter the darkness, no matter where we may find ourselves.
Isn’t that what happened at Christmas? At a particular moment in history, a specific point in time, God chose to step across the boundaries, pitch a tent, and reveal God’s own face to each and every one of us, issuing an invitation that included all from the lowliest of shepherds to the most revered magi.
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory . . .” (John 1:14).
“God is love.” (1 John 4:8)
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” (1 John 4: 7)
The face that God revealed to “ALL nations” (Isaiah 49:6) wasn’t then and isn’t now shrouded or cloudy or smoky or foggy. It is the star-lightened face of Love, if we dare to really look.
Blessings ~ Rosemary
Spirit Reflections 