Radioactive

Have you even had a skin disease? Did it affect your face? Did you have chicken pox? Did you have the measles? Were people afraid to come near you? Were you kept inside away from everyone? How did you feel about that? Were you hoping the disease would go away quickly?

Have diseases that have a negative effect on our faces are not fun to deal with. Whether it is chicken pox or the measles or some other disease, all we can think about is ridding ourselves of the disease. We do not like to be isolated. After all, we are community people.

Moses did not have a disease, but the people were afraid to come near him. Once he explained the reason for his face shining, they were willing to come within a reasonable distance. They needed to hear what God was saying to Moses, how God was instructing them to travel along the path he had laid out for them. Even if they were not always obedient.

We do not see people whose face shines in the same way Moses’ face shined. Yet, we do see people who are radiant. When they are filled with the love of God, their face shines. When they continually seek to follow Jesus, their face shines. We can see the joy on their face. Opposed to Moses, we are attracted to people like that.

We, too, can be people with faces that shine. How? Be filled with the love of God and seek to follow Jesus. The closer we get to God, the closer we follow the Jesus, the more joy Jesus pours into our hearts making our faces shine. We become a person everyone else wants to be around. We become Jesus’ shining light in a dark world.

I pray we all are filled with the love of God. I pray we seek to follow Jesus as close as we can. I pray each one of us will allow the love of God to shine through us making us a light for Jesus. Be filled with the love of God. Follow Jesus closely. Allow God’s love to shine through. Be a light for Jesus.

Exodus 34:29-30 Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him.