So spoke the Lord to Moses, “Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.” Exodus 33:20
No man can see God’s face and live, and yet our hearts ache (or desire) to see His face. We know that these frail bodies of dust could never bear the weight of such glory. Still, the longing does not die. Knowing that it’s impossible to see God through this human bodies, but still longing to see his face is our Christian journey. Our bodies can never sustain such enormous glory after seeing God’s face, yet this Holy longing to see his face is itself our faith.
These mortal bodies were never fashioned to withstand such enormous glory of seeing God face to face. And yet, how the soul pants for Him, as the deer pants for streams of water! Deep within us, the Spirit whispers what David once prayed: “Thy face, LORD, will I seek.”
Here we see only as through a glass, darkly. But the ache itself is a gift, a homing instinct planted by the Father who made us for Himself. To long for a face we cannot yet behold, and to trust that the pure in heart shall one day see Him, is the very pulse of the Christian walk. And when this perishable puts on the imperishable, when faith gives way to sight, “we shall see him as he is.”
Our eyes were made to see Him, yet our flesh was not made to survive the sight. We were made to behold Him, yet formed of dust that cannot bear the sight. No clay vessel can hold the fullness of that light and remain unbroken. And still the heart turns toward Him, the way a flower turns toward a sun it cannot touch.
Every longing is a lamp lit in the dark. Every ache is a quiet homeward bell. We see now only through a veil, a shimmer at the edge of morning, yet we keep our eyes lifted, and that holding of the gaze is our faith. One day the veil will fall, the dust will rise in glory, and the face we have longed for all our days will at last be the face we know.