The prophet Daniel speaks to the reality that each of us knows so well. We have rebelled. A writer once put it best, "we humans are the only animal that blushes, or has a need to blush."
In deed we are shamefaced as Daniel proclaims. Our face is a face of confusion because of our rebellion. People look upon us and they no longer see the face of the one who made us, they no longer spy the beauty of God radiant in our complexion. Oscar Wilde noted that sin alone can never be hidden for it writes itself all over the face.
In deed in an age of face lifts, and lipo suction, and wrinkle removing, and chin enhancing, nose jobs and the like God calls for us to change our face, but this transformation is brought about not by the external needle and blade but by an internal openness to grace, the word of God that is the sword that severs us from the ugly reality of sin.
True beauty radiates not from the skin but from Christ living within.
How do we remedy such a situation?
Jesus gives us the answer in one subtle word, "give."
He invites us to give. A word we say always and encounter often, a word that encapsulates the essence of the one who follows Christ. This person must be a giver.
A giver of worship to God in form of praise and thanksgiving. A giver of time and attention and means to the neighbor. A giver of affection and concern to oneself. A giver that reaches beyond oneself in order to truly return to one self only to encounter the presence of God alive.
To give means to extend beyond, to reach out, to freely transfer all that we are so that we might truly begin to know who we were meant to be.
As we give so sin is washed away, and our complexion begins to be youthful again; age flees where present is the heart that gives...gives until it hurts so that the wound of sin might finally be healed.
"Give," He says. Give.
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