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Exodus 33:12-23
By Norman Obenshain

This past summer I was part of a mission team that worked with Habitat for Humanity in Martinsburg, W. Va. We went to help construct an addition to a Habitat home that had become too small for its six residents - two adults and four children, some of whom had now grown to be teenagers.

We built the floor and put up two walls, but something else happened along the way. We connected with this family.

In fact, we connected with the neighborhood. Many of the homes on the street where we worked are Habitat homes. We have worked on several of them over the years during our annual summer mission trips.

This summer we witnessed, not only homes, but a community being built. We saw how folks take care of their homes and yards, plant gardens and raise chickens to help make ends meet.

More important, we saw how they helped each other. They watched out for each others' children and pets. One family provided a meal for us as their way of assisting the effort to build a larger home for a neighbor.

By the end of the week we not only did construction alongside one family. We met their neighbors, played with their dogs, ate together, swapped stories and sung together. And we met God there - in Martinsburg.

In Exodus, there is a wonderful story of Moses' meeting with God on Mount Sinai.

Moses, it says, asked to see God's glory. God and Moses had an especially close relationship, but still, God would not allow Moses to see God's face. Instead, God arranged things and told Moses, "You shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen."

Moses was not allowed to see God's face, but we have the opportunity all the time - if we believe.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta said, "I see God in the eyes of the poor. ... I see God in every human being." So can we.

We often hear the proverb "seeing is believing" but for us, as followers of Christ Jesus, it is believing that allows us to see, to see God in the poor, in the hurting, in those all around us. For, as Jesus said in Matthew 25:40, "just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me."

Mission trips, like the one we took this summer, change people because meeting God changes us. May we believe. May we have open eyes, as well as open minds, open hearts, open doors. May we see God in our neighbor. May we be blessed to meet God every day.

The Rev. Norman Obenshain is pastor of Glyndon UMC. He may be reached at .