He Assumes God Is Waiting for Him to Slip

Somebody asked him to describe the expression, and he could do it immediately, which was the part that bothered him afterwards.

Not disappointed exactly. Patient in a way that is worse than disappointed. The expression of somebody who has been through this before with you and is waiting, without hurrying, for the part they already know is coming.

He has never once, in his life, pictured that face pleased.

He would say the right things if you asked him the doctrine. He knows the sentences. He could tell you God is good and would not be reciting, he would mean it.

But the face is the face, and the face turns up in the half second before he thinks about it, and the half second before he thinks about it is where a man actually lives.

The psalm says outright how He has dealt with people

There is a sentence in Psalm 103 that is a statement about conduct rather than about feelings.

He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. (Psalm 103:10, King James Version)

He hath not dealt with us after our sins.

That is past tense and it is a report. The writer is describing what has already happened rather than making a prediction about what might.

Which means the arrangement has been running that way the whole time. Not from some point where a man got better. Throughout.

And a man with a face in his head has never checked that face against the record of what has actually happened to him.

You have already been dealt with in a way you have never accounted for. Psalm 103 puts it in the past tense as a report, and it is the Holy Spirit who makes a completed record do something to a half second.

The same psalm names the relationship and the reason

Three verses later, the same writer gives the picture, and the comparison is deliberate.

Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. (Psalm 103:13-14)

He knoweth our frame.

Frame is a construction word. He knows what the material is and what it can bear.

That is not a low opinion. It is the opposite of the face. The face in a man's head belongs to somebody who has forgotten what the material is and is disappointed that it behaves like the material.

The psalm says He remembers exactly what the material is, and that the remembering is why He deals the way He does.

You are being handled by somebody who has not forgotten what you are made of. Psalm 103 gives the reason in the verse right after the picture, and it is His Spirit who makes an old construction word feel like safety.

The father in the story was watching the road

In the story about the son who came home, there is a small logistical fact that most people miss.

But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him. (Luke 15:20)

He saw him a great way off.

Which means he was looking. A man does not spot somebody at that distance by accident. That is not a glance out of a window, that is a habit.

He had been watching the road, and he had been watching it for a while, and what he was watching for was not confirmation that the boy was as bad as everybody said.

You are watched by somebody who has been looking down the road for a different reason. Luke 15 has the seeing happen at a distance and the running start immediately, and it is the Holy Spirit who makes a piece of staging reach a man who can describe an expression.

The Bible gives the accusing voice a job title

There is a line in Revelation that says something about where a certain kind of running commentary comes from.

for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. (Revelation 12:10)

Day and night. It is described as a continuous occupation.

That is worth knowing, because a man with a face in his head usually assumes the face is his own conscience, or realism, or simply what is true.

The Bible does not treat that voice as neutral information. It names it, gives it a role, and then says the role has been ended.

You are not hearing a neutral report when the face arrives. Revelation 12 names the accusing as a job and then says it is cast down, and it is the Holy Spirit who makes the difference between conviction and accusation something a man can start to hear.

And God is described as making noise about people

There is a line in Zephaniah that has the opposite expression on it, and it is physical enough to be useful.

The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17)

Joy over thee with singing.

That is not the face. That is not any version of the face.

And a man who can produce the patient expression instantly and has never once produced this one has a picture that came from somewhere other than the book, and the somewhere is usually a room he grew up in.

You are described by somebody making noise rather than waiting. Zephaniah 3 puts the singing in the sentence, and it is His Spirit who makes an old line replace a picture a man has never questioned.