"Lord Jesus Christ, give me the eyes of faith to see your glory. Inflame my heart with love for you and with zeal for your kingdom and for your righteousness."
Reflection
“His face had become radiant.” (Exodus 34:29 – 35) There. I told you I would try a reflection on the Old Testament today for a little change-up!
Have you ever had just a great day, one of those days where everything—or everything that matters—seems right, and sometimes even better than right? Days when the sun shines, it’s not too hot or cold, and it’s just great to be alive in the world that’s been given to us?These kinds of days are about radiance, joy, and thanks. Let’s be honest; life in the 21st century doesn’t often seem to give us abundant opportunities for joy. Sometimes we have to look for joy, and sometimes we have to look hard for it.
When we find this joy, we often seem “radiant” to others. When we are like this, we are like the people we see all the time who are often relentlessly happy, full of enjoyment of their lives and their conditions. You know the people I mean—sometimes their constant happiness is kind of irritating, especially if we encounter them on the days in which we haven’t found much joy.
Some days we’re hard put to accept the joy all around us. At such times it takes work to just leave ourselves open to joy and happiness. For me, every July 27th is one of those days.
My dad passed away on that day in 1970 while my brother Tom and I were visiting our brother Dick and his wife Janie for the summer in Washington State. One of the things I try to do to get me through this day is to remember some of his “pearls of wisdom”.
One such pearl is the advice I heard my father give to all of his boys (there were 6 in all) and even some of our friends quite often when we were leaving the house –“Be good! And if you can’t be good, be careful!” He knew quite well we would do our best to be good, because that’s what he expected from us; I learned over the years to understand that the words “be careful” were just code words for “be good anyway!”
I trust that I haven’t disappointed him. I really miss Dad and hope to see him again someday with Jesus Christ in the kingdom of heaven.
Surely Moses must have felt a sense of what the kingdom of heaven will be like. Jesus tells us how valuable it is, in practical terms that we can relate to in our earthly lives. (Matthew 13) It is worth all we have in this life – it is worth sacrificing all we have and possess in order to obtain it. There’s no reason we can’t be as radiant, inside and out, as Moses was. The joy left for us and which can inhabit us is reflective of the pearl of great price that, when found, fills our life with happiness and love.
It is good to recall that each of us is already in eternity. We will always be. For now though, we have time to enjoy and build on our relationships, especially our relationship with Christ. Christ is always present to us, always sees us and awaits our turning toward Him. Love is always reaching out to us.
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