Till We Have Faces

This is part of a syndicated series for Lent 2019 with Harvard’s Christian Journal Ichthus. Visit Ichthus at http://www.harvardichthus.org | By Raquel Sequeira, TD’ 21. Raquel is majoring in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry.

So, let us worship in desperate hope, awaiting God’s incarnate Joy.

I have had a few—a very few—moments in my life when I felt I knew God. One of the most powerful in my life happened just last weekend, and I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. I also find myself filled with the temptation to fear: I fear that I will lose that experience, that another will never come, and I fear isolation from God’s face just as I fear human loneliness now that the experience is over. The feeling is almost overwhelming, and I want to cling with all my strength to something I know I cannot hold.

Lent is a season to face up to temptation and the fear of isolation, as Jesus did in the desert. Lent is a time to put trust in the desperate hope that if God truly incarnated Himself, He will do it again—that if He truly showed me His face, as I believe He did, He will do it again.

So, let us worship in desperate hope, awaiting God’s incarnate Joy.