“To see your face is like seeing the face of God.”
We should be saying these words frequently, to every person we meet, even when our encounters may seem to pit us against one another.
This phrase was spoken by the biblical patriarch Jacob to his brother Esau.
Jacob thought that Esau was coming to kill him, to take revenge for all that Jacob had done to his brother through dishonesty and deceit so many years before.
“To see your face is like seeing the face of God.”
Esau was coming to greet his brother with an entourage of 400 men. This was nothing unusual for him. Jacob didn’t know that Esau wasn’t planning to attack him. When Esau saw his brother Jacob for the first time in many years, all he wanted was a reunion, a peaceful and hopefully face-to-face meeting. He was looking forward to forging a new relationship. It may be that Esau had not forgotten what his brother had done to him in the past. It was just that he realized that they were brothers, and that they needed to be together again.
“To see your face is like seeing the face of God.”
Do we believe that every member of the family of humanity is created in the image of God, a spiritual template that enables us to show respect, to give support, to offer compassion, to extend our hearts in love, and to make peace with one another?
“To see your face is like seeing the face of God.”
God’s image does not come in one hue. A spiritual image does not have color. But external color has been a source of division. Some human beings have not included people of color among those created in God’s image. They have viewed them with fear, approaching them with a need to exert power and control over them, to buy and sell them, to try to proclaim to them that there is one culture in which they are not allowed to participate, creating a context where that difference leads to discrimination in housing, work, health care, and community and personal safety, and where calling out those areas of inequality is viewed with contempt and disdain.
“To see your face is like seeing the face of God.”
This has happened too many times in human history. It needs to stop. Looking in to someone’s face, listening to their stories, empathizing with what is in their heart based on their experiences, that is what God would want us to do.
“To see your face is like seeing the face of God.”
Can we truly recognize God’s presence in one another? If we could, there would be equal treatment for all people. There would no longer be suspicion, because, even with diversity, we could see God’s presence underneath that difference. We would realize that unnecessary violence against one person of color is violence against every human being and against God. We would understand that until everyone truly knows freedom, none of us are free. We would finally fathom that if there is injustice experienced by some people, there is not yet justice for us all.
“To see your face is like seeing the face of God.”
We need to look harder into one another’s faces and hearts, and join together, hearing stories of trauma, making new narratives of cooperation and hope that will lead to changes in policy and attitudes that will enable our nation to make equality more real and true than ever before.
Only then will we see the face of God in one another.
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