As Plain as the Nose …
How do you keep track of things? I have a set up for my phone, my cash, my driver’s license and the various cards I carry that works for me. They are all housed in the same leather wallet. It holds all my essentials, keeping them together. If I misplace my wallet, I can easily find it with a phone call.
And yet, it has its limits. The other day after a long day of work, I was dreaming of vacation plans. On the way home, I called my wife to discuss them, using my handy wallet-phone. We talked for a long time, discussing various flight plans and options, blissfully chatting about the fun we were about to have.
As we were talking, I saw that I would soon need gas so I pulled into the station and shut the car off for a fill-up. We continued to talk as I looked for my gas card. It was, of course, in my wallet. I looked on the dashboard where I sometime put the wallet. I looked in my briefcase, I even began looking on the floor, thinking it may have slipped off the seat.
My voice tone must have showed my growing irritation because my wife asked, “Is there something wrong.” “No,” I replied, “I just can’t seem to find my wallet.” Just as I was about to ask her to call my phone so that I could find it, she spoke. “Jim, what’s in your hand?”
It was, of course, the wallet I was looking for. I laughed as the thought that I was either losing my mind or was the dumbest person on earth.
Am I? Has something similar ever happened to you? You are looking for your glasses, only to discover they were on your head the whole time? The keys you were searching for show up hanging in the last lock you opened? My bets are that it has.
“It’s as plain as the nose on your face,” they say. The problem is that my nose is just not that easy to see. Try this experiment. Right now, where you sit, look at your nose. What do you see? Without a mirror, I see only a faint, almost transparent outline of my nose.
I certainly couldn’t describe it in detail. That is, if I don’t have a mirror. Once provided with a mirror then I am able to see it clearly.
Our recognition of God is often similar. Though I know he is there, I usually see Him only in faint outline, an awareness that He is present, bolstered by faith in His promise, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” While some say “seeing is believing,” with God the opposite is true.
We can not see until we believe. On those days when belief comes easily, I see him more clearly. On other days, my vision is dimmed by my lack of faith.
An even better and constant view of Him comes as I supplement my limited spiritual sight by reaching out to the places where I can see him reflected. Some of these mirrors are better than others: He is reflected in nature by which I see His majesty, power and beauty.
Those around me bear the reflection of His image – love, creativity, reason – which I can still see, even though the distorted haze of sin. God reflection is revealed through His Word, the Bible. And all of these point to and come together in His “Word made flesh,” Jesus of Nazareth.
God’s seeming absence, just like the “missing” glasses, phone, wallet, or keys can be distressing, frustrating and even painful. That frustration may tempt us to wonder if we’ve done something to lose Him or to push him away. We may become angry, thinking that He has abandoned us.
Yet, when God seems distant or removed, He is not. Instead, he is more likely to be present in the same way as the glasses, the keys or the wallet – “As plain as the nose on our faces.”
It may be comforting to realize that the experience of seeing God dimly is common to even the strongest of believers. Moses pleads to see God’s face but is not able to. Paul speaks of seeing through a darkened mirror.
David and Elijah likewise have experiences of God seeming absent. Other Christians throughout history speak of “dark nights of the soul” when He appears this absence.
In times like these we need not react to our pain with blame or anger – with either ourselves or God. Our frustration is likely to make us less, rather than more, likely to find Him.
We need not fear that He has left us never to return. Instead, we can lay hold of the mirrors that reflect Him and see him in His creation, in His people and His Word.
In these we can reassure ourselves and await the day when we see Him “face to face.”
—Rev. James R. Needham, PhD, MDiv
Can you identify with misplacing things only to find that they are “in plain sight?” Are there times when God seems this way? How do you feel knowing that this is a normal and natural experience of believers through the ages? How do you react when God seems distant? Hold on to this truth: “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (1 Cor 13:12). Thank to Lord for the desire He’s placed in your heart to know Him and see His hand in your life. Use occasions of seeming distance to search for His reflection in others, your community, and in His word. Seek and you shall find. He’s there, as clear as the nose on your face. —DH
—David Hoskins, Founder & Care Guide, Sanctuary Clinics