A couple weeks ago Bethany and I took a vacation to Hawaii. In preparation for our trip I decided to get the finest pair of sunglasses that $5 could buy. They were kind of big and awkward, but for the price of a Value Meal at McDonald’s I can’t complain – or in Hawaii that would be the price of a small fry. Our little travel book told us that on the island of Oahu (where we were staying) we should check out the North Shore for some beautiful beaches. So one afternoon we jumped in our rental car and started the drive. The scenery was spectacular; the sun was shining, the water was sparkling and there were beautiful plants everywhere. As we were approaching the North Shore we drove up a hill that gave us a postcard view of the beach. It was breath taking. The colors were so rich and bright! Immediately I was in awe of how beautiful God’s creation is.

After those brief moments of awe, I remembered that I was wearing my sunglasses. I immediately took them and was amazed. What seemed like the most colorful & vibrant view I had ever seen paled in comparison to what it looked like now. The colors were richer, the sun was brighter & the whole landscape looked more alive. Same scene. Same view. Just no sunglasses.

Exodus 33 & 34 tell us that when Moses met with God, his face radiated the glory of Lord so much so that when he came down to tell the Israelites what He had said, they were afraid because Moses’ face was shining so brightly. Moses ended up putting a veil over his face when he met with the people, but always took it off when meeting with God.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:13-18:

We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Moses could reflect the Lord’s radiance only because he saw the Lord’s radiance. We too can only reflect what we see. The brighter we see it, the brighter the reflection. Like Moses, the more glory we see, the more glory we radiate.

I believe all of us wear many pairs of sunglasses; each stacked on top of the last. When we look at God we see beauty, brilliance, majesty, glory and so much more. But all that we see is just a small portion of how beautiful He really is. When I look back over my life, I can point to a handful of times when one of may pair of sunglasses was removed. I was looking at the same God, but suddenly He became clearer, more beautiful & more glorious to me. He never changed; I did. Maybe this is part of what Paul meant in the passage we read earlier when he said that we “are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory”. As we grow, we see more and more of the glory of God. Or we take more and more pairs of sunglasses off.

This is one of the reasons worship is so important. We spend so much of our time looking at ourselves. But worship is when we take our eyes off of ourselves and look at God. The more we worship, the more pairs of sunglasses fall off and we see more and more of who He is. And the more pairs of sunglasses that fall off the more we worship because when we catch glimpses of God’s beauty & glory we can’t help but be amazed. What a wonderful cycle!

Do you want to see your friends, family & neighbors come to Jesus? Do you have a heart for God’s mission? Do you want to be used as a witness in your community? Do you want to be a “city on a hill” and a “lamp on a stand”? Allow God to draw you into deeper times of worship. Allow Him to remove another pair of sunglasses. The more glory we see, the more glory we reflect. The clearer we see Him, the clearer others will see Him in us.

Though on this side of heaven we will probably always “see through a glass dimly”, there’s much more of God’s brilliance that He will allow us to see.  Ask Him to take off another pair of your sunglasses; God loves to show us more of His glory.

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