Look Full in His Wonderful Face

“It always amuses me,” said my husband Ed, “when people talk about what Jesus looked like. I don’t think he ever sat for a portrait and nobody had a camera.” He makes a point. But each of us has our own image when we think of Jesus. Being imperfect humans, we have to focus on some tangible thing when we think about Him. It’s that idea of total human perfection that we hold in our hearts when we consider the One we call The Christ. We know that He was a Jewish man from a certain period of history so that gives us a starting point. And likely we want to give Him a kindly countenance. Beyond that, His actual facial features are lost to us. Scripture leads us to believe He was not exceptionally good looking, but I have to believe He was appealing in some way.

No matter. When I turn my spiritual gaze from the mundane mess that’s before me to the image I hold of His face, “the things of earth grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”