“Seeking Peniel.”
“My heart says ‘seek your face’. Your face, Lord, do I seek.” Psalm 27:8
“Jacob called the place Peniel, saying ‘Certainly I have seen God face-to-face and survived.'” Genesis 32:30
“He looks up and says, ‘I can see God’s face’.” Carrie Underwood, “Temporary Home”
Darkness. In the literal sense we spend half our life there. In the figurative sense maybe more. Darkness is illustrative is all that is meant to hurt or harm or cause pain.
There is cosmic darkness, spiritual forces far beyond our control that seem to strike at will:
- Planes crash in darkness.
- Hostages are kept blindfolded and underground in darkness.
- Criminals do their dirty work in darkness.
- Corrupt politicians retain power by ruthlessly imposing darkness on their people.
Darkness is cosmic.
But it is also personal. We have all faced darkness in our lives. It invades and permeates our lives in ways that we could never imagine. It is like the monster that we fear hiding in our closets or under our beds as children. Sometimes it seems as if it is stalking us, threatening to suffocate and extinguish what little joy, light, or hope we have in our lives.
The things that we spend so much time and effort seeking cannot dispel this kind of darkness. We desperately need the relief that comes from the radiance of God’s presence. We need God to turn his face toward us, so that we can get a glimmer of divine light in our daily darkness.
The prophet Moses beheld God’s glory, and as a result his face shone so brightly that he had to cover it with a veil.
The patriarch Jacob, as he faced his own personal darkness, wrestled with God in the darkness. And he saw God face to face. He called that place Peniel, “The face of God.”
St. John, in his gospel, says “We have beheld his glory.” He is speaking of Christ. In the face of Jesus, we see the glorious face of God. Not in an anthropomorphic way, but in a figurative sense. We behold kindness, grace, mercy, love, compassion, and so forth.
During the dark days of his imprisonment on the island of Patmos, John saw that radiant face of God’s glory transformed in eternal splendor. The result was the writing of the book called The Revelation. Patmos was John’s Peniel.
Where is yours? Where is your Peniel? Where have you, or do you, behold the face of God? Or perhaps a better question is, “Who is it that reflects God’s glory to you?”
One day we will, I am confident, behold the same face that Jacob and John witnessed. That is what Carrie Underwood sings about in the last verse of her song “Temporary Home.” But in a sense, in a very real sense, in a very true and lasting sense, we can see the face of God now. We see it in the mirror. Sadly, we are not cognizant of it, but we do. St. Paul, whose eyes were blinded by the divine light, writes, “We all with unveiled faces reflect the glory of God, and are being transformed into his image.”[1]
The Spirit of God, planted deep within us, causes us to reflect God’s glory, whether we recognize it or not.
But we also see the face of God in others. Through eyes of faith we see the face of God in the child born with Down’s syndrome, or suffering from malnutrition. We see the face of God in the old man or woman diagnosed with dementia. We see the face of God in our parent, our partner, our priest, or the person whom God sends us to smile, hold us in our time of hurt, listen to our lament, lend us shoulder to lean on. That person becomes our Peniel.
We see the face of God in many people and places. The challenge of faith is to open our eyes so that we can see God’s glory shining through them.
One of the most beautiful and familiar blessings of the bible is the one that Moses’ brother Aaron gave. Not surprisingly, it speaks of the face of God. I leave you to receive, relish, and rejoice in it. And maybe, just maybe, to reflect that resplendent light and love in your own life.
“The Lord bless and keep you.
The Lord make his face shine upon you.
The Lord turn his face toward you, and give you peace.”[2]
[1] 2 Corinthians 3:18
[2] Numbers 6:24