An older gospel song reads, “Face to face with Christ, my Savior, Face to face what will it be – when with rapture I beheld him, Jesus Christ who died for me.” In the Hebrew Bible “the face of God” is a way of speaking of God’s presence. It can seem a bit strange to us but we all know the joy of seeing those we love face to face. A video call is far more satisfying than just the voice on the phone. We get to see faces, we can see the smile and read the language of gesture and facial expression. Sunday was our first face to face session for Sunday morning worship. The group was small but it was such a joy to see each other face to face. Not only did the face of the Lord shine upon us but we could also notice the shine on each other because of our face to face meeting together. When forced by sickness or circumstance to be apart we hunger to see each other and feel human touch. Perhaps that is why the incarnation is so important. In Jesus we see the face of God present in the flesh. It was a face that his disciples could greet with a kiss of welcome. He made the invisible God visible to our human eyes. Sometimes I think those around us end up seeing us like school pictures. Sometimes we are neat and tidy and at other times messy and out of sorts. But either way, we are unfinished and next year will show a new face to the world around us. However you are at any given moment, those of us who love you are always glad to see your face.