There's this interesting effect that happens when I am in my shed at night. The window in daytime looks out onto a granite wall. At night with the light on in the shed, there is a reflection on the window pane of the granite wall behind me. I see the reflection of the back interior wall of the shed. It's very similar. If I am wanting to see beyond the reflection when I am puzzling over something, I find this a good way to 'see through' the immediate reflection of this superimposed 'reality', which is simply the reflection of what is behind me, and now before me. To see beyond this takes some meditative shift of reason.
A thing that has always intruiged me throughout my years as a Hairdresser. People sit in front of the mirror and are realy caustic about themselves. I used to say, 'You would never speak about your worst enemy the way you describe yourself'.
I always tried to explain to my clients that the image they have got used to seeing is reversed.
This is a bit deep... If you have a conversation with someone face to face, our perception says (Because we have grown up with mirrors)... our right hand side, is talking to the other persons right hand side... when in fact it's their left hand side. We forget that our right, when in face to face conversation, is the other persons left hand side.
When we look at ourselves in a mirror, we are actually seeing our 'Right Hand Self', and reading it as our 'Left Hand Self'. In a psychiatric sense, our objective reason is reading our subjective motivation. No wonder most of the human race has become confused and bad at communicating!
There is a passage in the Bible where Moses asks to see God's Glory. God positions Moses in a cleft in the rock... so that he has a fixed perspective, and for some reason can't move. Closes Moses' eyes, and then God 'passes by' and shows Moses His back.
Well I have this theory that God looks pretty much the same from all angles, but in saying 'I will show you my back', God is allowing no ambiguity to creep into Moses' perception about which is His 'Right Hand, and which is His Left Hand.
In standing behind someone, and seeing what is before them, you see what they see, and are in a position to 'step into their shoes', in a metaphorical sense.
I don't think Moses realy understood what he was asking for. I kind of think that in asking to see God's Glory from any angle, you are asking to step into God's place, which is cheeky to say the least.
I think Moses might have seen the reflection of 'his own back' before him, rather like the reflection I get in my shed window at night. A complete insurmountable paradox? God was behind Moses, then 'walked through him', and when God told Moses to open his eyes, Moses saw an image of his own back.
Actually I just thought, Moses was whinging so much about His position as leader around this time. I kind of think it was along the lines of, 'If only You(God)could step into my shoes, and see what 'I' have to put up with'... So God did. He showed Moses what it was like to be 'swapped' for a moment! (Eternity) as God covered Moses eyes. So possibly as Moses was 'stepping back' into 'himself' he saw his own 'back', the same way that God would see it. Ha! That is a lovely Paradox, can't ge
God is 'Presence'. In order to reveal himself it seems entirely feasable that He would have to have an 'Afterglow', otherwise there would be nothing created. Nice to think God is 'up front in the driving seat'!
By asking to see God's Glory, it would mean that Moses asked to partake in God's Divinity. Which even though Moses may or may not have understood the implications of exactly, shows a bit of esoteric imp-rude-ence..
This is why I don't have a problem with describing Jesus as both Human and Divine. If God 'Walked through Moses', He can 'Walk through anyone'. He chooses not us. The evidence of God being present in someone's life, is going to show up in what they do, and the magnitude of effect their 'do', does to the cosmic Kalidascope.
Afterglow of God's presence made Moses' face shine. Jesus became the 'Light of God' and shone so bright, stood between Moses and Elijah, that His disciples fell to the ground and covered their eyes. Now that's Awesome.
Again, only God magnifies the 'do' into 'done'.
Say no more!