More than a healthy glow. . .

I’ve been thinking about how to speak for God without using words. This morning’s reading reminded me of Janice.

As a young woman in the working world, Janice noticed something unusual; some of the people she worked with had shining faces. Her observations went further. Others had the same glow about them, and she discovered that all these “shiny people” were Christians. From that she was drawn to the Lord Jesus Christ—the One who makes people shine.

In Genesis 33, Jacob is about to meet his estranged brother Esau. They parted company years ago with Esau wanting to kill him, and now Jacob didn’t know what to expect. He was fearful, and thought if he offered Esau some of his livestock and servants, the tension might be eased.

Jacob was in for a surprise though. When he saw Esau, the countenance of this once angry brother told him the animosity was over. He said, “I have seen your face as though I had seen the face of God.”

A similar thing happened in the New Testament. A young believer named Stephen was falsely accused of blasphemy and hauled him the Jewish court. However, when “all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.”

When asked by the high priest if the accusations were true, Stephen outlined the nation’s history of rebellion against God, and “When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

I can imagine that his face was still shining, but it didn’t produce a positive response, at least not for Stephen. “Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; and they cast him out of the city and stoned him.”

“And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not charge them with this sin.’ And when he had said this, he fell asleep."

Stephen died, but the man who held the clothes later became the Apostle Paul, who was mightily used by God to build the church and write most of the New Testament.

The Bible talks also of Moses who went into the tabernacle in the wilderness where God manifested Himself to him as light. When he came out, his face shone so brightly that the people could not look at him. This light faded since it was a reflection of God’s glory as seen in the Law of Moses. The light that reflects God’s glory as seen in the gift of His Son never fades.

For me, this means that as I gaze into the glory of God, and think about who He is, and as I trust Him, He can shine His glory on me and make me a reflection of His light. I could look in a mirror and not see that, but others will, and that is just one way that I can point them to Him—without saying a word.