Friends,
Someone gave me a Christmas card several years ago which I keep displayed year-round as a reminder to me of the privilege true Christians have.  It is a picture of Mary holding the baby Jesus and kissing his cheek.  The caption says, “Kissing the face of God.”  Grasping the meaning of this phrase is certainly worship-inducing as one thinks of the enormous love God showed mankind in coming to earth as one of us.  That He came to live amongst us so that He might show us how to live –how to love and speak and act and worship, and so that we might not only be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:,18,19), but become intimate friends with Him.  (John 15:14)

This card reminds me that as wonderful as it was that God became a human baby, able to be held and kissed and cared for by a mother, it is just as wonderful that God, the majestic King-Creator of the universe, allows Himself to be adored and ministered unto by any and all mere human beings who want to do so in Truth.  And that not only does He allow it, but He takes joy in it and responds by lavishing upon us even more of His love, attention, and fellowship.

God did not leave us when Jesus bodily rose back up into Heaven.  No, He instead came to us in an even better way.  He came as the Spirit so that He might indwell each of us.  This way we would always have Him with us, and only a prayer away from helping us, comforting us, counseling us, and guiding us.  Is not the promise in Heb. 13:5 something to rejoice about, “because God has said, ‘I will never leave you; I will never abandon you.” –?  And as Jesus promised, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  Before long, the world will not see Me anymore, but you will see Me… [and] will realize that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you.”  (John 14:18-20)  Who is this promised to?  It is for whoever has (meaning, has deep in his heart –Ps. 119:11 & Heb. 10:16) Christ’s commands, and by obeying them, shows he loves Jesus.  (John 14:21,23)

Well, this card reminds me of the wonderful relationship we have all been invited to have with the Mighty Most High God –that of being able to kiss His face in adoring worship and be held in His everlasting arms of love, rest, comfort, and salvation.  (Dt. 33:12,27)

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