God's presence and God's back

This past week we drove to Gandia in Spain and back again under the cloud of God’s presence. We stopped overnight in Toledo on the way which is an amazing magical city lying on a bend in the River Tejo. Yes, the same water that passes by our house in Lisbon flows by here in the heart of Spain. I mention the cloud of Gods presence because it seems appropriate. The ECM Conference we attended kicked off with a meditation on Exodus 33 by our President, Johan Lukasse, where God gives Moses an awesome promise, “My Presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.” Then on the final session of the final day, Johan returned to the same chapter and theme.

That chapter in the Bible has aways been for us hugely significant throughout our 30 years of marriage, so it was good to be thinking of it in a new light. Toward the end of the Chapter, Moses asks of God “Show me your Glory”, and there’s this odd little account of how God places Moses in the cleft of a rock, and causes His glory to pass by him, while saying to Moses that you cannot look see My Glory and live. The idea being that Moses is nevertheless able to get a glimpse of God’s back. That always intrigued me as an impressionable schoolboy. What on earth would God’s back look like?

But that night, as the conference drew to a close, I suddenly see it differently. No, we can’t see God’s face. We’re sinful mortal beings, and he is holy and altogether other. Yes, we do see Jesus, standing in our place and enabling us to come before a Holy God. But, God’s back? Well, we see God’s back, simply because He’s there before us and - we’re in position - following Him. If you can see someone’s back, it means that they’re ahead of you. And you are behind. You know that they’re leading you on. The evening drew to a close with almost 30 people coming to the front, new missionaries for Europe, to be commissioned and prayed for. Amazing. Yes, God’s doing a new thing in Europe, and His presence does continue with us still, and He does give us His rest.