When God Shows Up...

Read Isaiah 6:1-8

Have you ever just wanted to see God? It just burned in you to wonder if you really knew when God showed up on the scene of your life. Was it just the “goose bump syndrome” that took place when you started to sing or praise? If it was just the goose bump syndrome, God shows up in my life when I see or listen to the last 10 seconds of the 1980 Olympic hockey game between Russia and the United States. I don’t think God cared too much about who won, and every time I see the replay of the game, even though I’ve seen it a million times, I get goose bumps, so that is not God showing up for me.
When God shows up in my life, I grasp some feature of his CHARACTER. Isaiah wrote, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim, each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.”
While going about his priestly duties Isaiah saw God. I hope you notice that it was a shock to him. God pulled back the thin veil between our physical realm and spiritual reality and Isaiah saw the big picture. I’m sure his mind could not conceive what God was up to while he was going about his ordinary ministry in the Temple. Sure, he knew God was present in that holy place, but he probably never imagined it was more than mere symbolism. The veil was pulled back and he saw the Seraphim surrounding the throne of God. Kind of blows your image of angels doesn’t it. They’re not cute little cupids. Neither are they beautiful women as so many pictures depict them. These particular angels have three sets of wings. They only fly with one pair. The others are used to cover their feet and faces. Why. They are in the presence of a holy God.
This is the feature of God’s character that Isaiah clearly sees; holiness. Here’s God in all his pure, undefiled and total majesty. In this case the seraphim even call out the attribute that they want Isaiah to see. “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts!”
When God shows up we grasp some feature of his character. When the band plays a song you may become aware of a number of God’s attributes, his righteousness, his justice, his faithfulness, his mercy. You just have to pay attention. When the Bible is read you have to do the same thing. Look and listen for what God is revealing about himself. Features of his character display themselves all the time in the prayers of others, in testimonies, in dramas and videos, in images and symbols. You have to look for them. You don’t even have to be in church to discover them. Just picture in your mind any individual that you may seem to think has some shortcoming, or scar or sickness and abnormality. Then picture that person as your child. As you realize that such flaws in that person would make no difference to you, and that you would love that person anyway you will get a glimpse of the character of God. Allow God to break into your thought process. The impression of that thought may be God saying, “You love that child despite their flaws. I love you even more despite your own.” God steps into the room. It becomes a holy moment. As the emotions of that realization come pouring into your spirit you will begin to understand something profound about the heart of God. His love is enormous. His love is for you and me. When you come into contact with a feature of God’s character, you can be certain that God has shown up.

“Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”
- Abraham Lincoln