Hands - Face - Space

Generations will never forget the mantra HANDS – FACE – SPACE. These three simple words can not only help to keep us safe; we can also use them to think about God and the Christian message.

 

Christians traditionally believe, as the Church of England puts it, that “There is but one living and true Gid, everlasting, without body [or] parts”. For all our bearded old man images of him, God does not literally have hands or a face.

 

But the Bible often uses picture language to speak of God. He is a rock. Or like a mother hen gathering up her chicks under her wings. And he is frequently described in human terms.

 

Jesus, God the Risen Conquering Son, is now seated in honour and glory at the right HAND of God the Father. The arm of the Lord is not too short to save and he promises his people pleasures at his right hand for ever.

 

The Bible often speaks of God’s FACE turned towards his people in blessing or turned away in judgement. This is the language of personal relationship: we know God’s smile or his frown. In Jesus Christ we see the face of God: God revealed and made known, the perfect and true image and representation of God. And the ultimate hope of all who trust in Jesus is to see God face to face.

 

As a Spirit, God does not occupy SPACE. But he is the infinite Lord of time and space, present to all those who are mingling freely or socially isolated. The shielding can know God as their shield always, where ever they are. Jesus left his social bubble, the eternal Triune life of heaven, to come to our space, this wonderful yet fallen world, to the manger in Bethlehem. He died on a cruel Roman cross it to abolish the social distance which our sin has caused between us and God. Covid restrictions or not, he calls on us to embrace him.

 

So for your sake and for the sake of others, stick to HANDS, FACE, SPACE. But let it drive you into the arms of God too that you might know his smile.