Seeing the Face of God

When I left the Tennille United Methodist Church after a two year stint as pastor, I carried with me a lot of resentment and anger.  Things got very difficult during that second year and by the time the dust had cleared, I was eager for a fresh start.  One of those who had been an antagonist came by the parsonage as we were packing and offered an olive branch, but I was not in the mood to receive it.  So, I left angry.  It was several years out from that departure that I realized how much animosity I carried in my heart and with the realization came a breath of forgiveness for those from my past.

 

But, I was in one place and they were in another and there never was any face to face words of reconciliation.  I knew a reconciliation had taken place in my heart because I no longer desired bad things for them, but there was at that point no burning urgency to go back and try to make relationships right again.  It was about fifteen years before that actually happened.  I was invited back to preach and the occasion of the preaching provided a mutual moment of reconciliation.  Maybe earlier was not the right time.  Why it took fifteen years I still do not know.

 

All this came to mind as I was reading the Jacob and Esau moment of reconciliation.  When Jacob left home as a young man, he had stolen the blessing of his father which belonged to the first born (Esau) and resulted in Esau threatening to kill him.  For twenty years Jacob lived away from home and family.  It took a long time for reconciliation to come for those brothers, but it did.  Jacob described it as he spoke to his brother, "...for truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God--since you have received me with such favor."  (Genesis 33:10)  Reconciliation is like Jacob described it.  Always it is a moment filled with grace.