"May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you." [Numbers 6:25, NLT]
"Smile on me, your servant; teach me the right way to live." [Ps 119:135, MSG]
The point to ponder is “God smiles when I trust him”, and I find the word “smile” rather challenging, especially as it is telling me that God smiles at me when I trust him.
For me, the word smile is a very personal, a very friendly expression. To smile at someone is a way of showing that you like that person, that they are a friend, or that you want to be friends with them. It is an action that draws you closer to a person. So, when God instructs Moses and Aaron to bless Israel with these words, it is a reminder that God wants to be close to us, not distant.
The blessing continues “and be gracious to you”. I can think of many times when I fall short of what I think God expects or demands, things that should or can create distance between me and God. But in this blessing, God wants to be gracious, he will be gracious, and he is understanding of our mistakes. We will try to please God, try to trust him, try to do so many things, and fail, yet God is gracious to us and smiles at us.
We may think that our mistakes push God away, but they don’t. God is gracious to us and his smile invites us to come closer to him.
Father, thank you for your smile, thank you for your grace towards us, thank you for drawing us closer to you. Teach us the right way to live.
Written by Andrew Martin
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