We All Wanna See God

We finished up the simplified tale of Mary and the angel last night, and as I flipped the brightly colored pages and went to close the "Baby Bible" Gideon rolled over and looked at me.

"Daddy," he said in his voice of wanting, the voice he uses when he wants a stuffed animal to spend the night with him in bed, or a last drink of milky, or one more kisses.

"Yea, son," I said stroking his hair and looking down at the tiring eyes.

"I want to see God."

It was shocking coming from a two (almost three) year old. I don't know how serious he was, considering he was using his whiny, "I-don't-want-to-go-bed" tone, but still. The Bible says that God has ordained praise from the lips of babes, but this is a much deeper request that a simple acknowledgment of praise. This was like the longing prayers of the greatest prophets.

Moses, on the mountain of God, bargaining with God for the lives of the people. Moses lays himself out as an offered sacrifice for the people, negotiating with God. I imagine this to be a passionate conversation, because both of them were dealing with a lot of anger. After all that God, Moses, and the people had been through - seas splitting, clouds of smoke and fire, miraculous food and water - the people had built an idol of gold! God the angry Father, Moses pleading for mercy. As God's anger calms, he agrees to Moses' request. Then, exhausted from the interaction, Moses emotion and love well up inside him: "Now," long breath, deep longing, "show me Your Glory."

But Moses is not to see God's face. Later in the story of Scripture, Elijah stands on the mountain, again worn and torn from his zealous service for the LORD in the face of the obstinate people. He prays with passion for the LORD to take him, to remove his loneliness and seeming failure. God answers, not in the wind, fire, or earthquake, but in the gentle whisper. This is the closest that someone has been to God since Moses on the mountain, but still, Elijah does not get to see God.

Gideon's request struck me as odd for his age. Others come to this place of want and desire after lifetimes of service to God, and Gideon is saying it at two. But the request itself isn't odd. For whatever reason, we all want to see God.

The first thing to pop into my head, after Gideon repeated himself several times, was a song by Legends of Rodeo.

And down on the corner of Olive and Queens
we talk about things that we've never seen
like the Sistine, and the heart of Spain, and God.
We all wanna see God.

There's a majesty and a mystery to God. Like the Sistine Chapel, a pinnacle of art that I have to see some day, because it's brilliance is so intriguing. God is the same way. Intriguing.

But what makes God even more of a must-see is love. I've been in a long distance relationship of sorts (two hours) in college. My wife and I spent hours on the phone, about an hour every night really. I know the longing to see, feel, touch someone who you are without a doubt in love with. The LORD God has revealed his ravenous love over and over again in my life, and I want to see Him.

There's a third story of Scripture that takes place on the mountain. I'm looking at it a new way today. Jesus takes Peter, James and John, and they hike to the top of a mountain. There Jesus takes on a radiant brilliance, he is surrounded with God's glory. The gospel writers try and describe this change that Jesus takes on, but I imagine that their images fall short of what that glory must have been like. I think they fall short because Peter loses his mind in the midst of the glory. The gospel writers make it seem as though Peter is overwhelmed and his way of dealing with it is blabbering. This was immaculate, unmeasured, powerful. It was as if God had broken through to the world and shone His face.

Because God had broken through to the world and shown His face.

And who was there to witness it? The LORD's two faithful friends, finally having their prayers answered. Moses and Elijah stood with Jesus on the mountain. They saw God in Jesus.

I'll have to remember to remind Gideon of that next time we lay down to read the "Baby Bible." You see, our next story is Jesus birth.

"Gideon, you wanted to see God? Well, let me tell you the story of how He came to see us..."