My father had a rather good-sized nose! This was by his own admission! He would often kid about it and say that when he came down with a cold, he got his money’s worth! That was my Dad! Loved to kid, loved to laugh and was loved by many people. Can’t remember anyone who didn’t like my Dad. He was just a great guy. Hardly perfect but someone you liked to be around. Even with that large nose of his! That was part of his charm too…don’t you like people who can laugh at themselves? I can sense that you’re wondering where I’m going with this! Maybe I’m wondering also? No, I’ve a point here and it’s not on the top of my head! Have you read our Scripture verse yet? Might as well start at the beginning of chapter 34. Here the Lord is passing in front of Moses on Mount Sinai proclaiming who He is, His being and His character. It’s just a wonderful, power-packed section from the Torah. Read it again. The Lord tells us how compassionate He is, how gracious and giving, He’s slow to anger, forgiving not just easy things but ‘wickedness, rebellion and sin’. As the gospel song says, ‘What a Might God We Serve’. Mighty and loving and compassionate…oh, we could go on-and-on all day and night–and we probably should. Stop griping… and keep glorifying! That’s a good motto for today and every day. Yes? But back to Exodus 34, in that list of attributes of the Lord is the expression ‘slow to anger’. Maybe you know that in the Hebrew that phrase is literally ‘long of nose’. My father would have let out a good laugh at that one. Yes, for the Lord to be patient and long-suffering and slow to anger is for Him to be ‘long of nose’. Now, what does that mean? The Hebrew people pictured the blood in the body as travelling from the tip of your toes to the end of your nose as quite a long journey. They felt that that aptly describes someone who is not a hot-head, not having a short-fuse but someone with patience and a long fuse! If God were otherwise, we’d all perish in a matter of a few seconds–with me going first of all. But God hangs in there with us, He waits for us like that patient father in the prodigal son story, He lets the anger-blood take the long journey allowing us to come to our spiritual senses, permitting us to come back to Him, to repent and accept His gift of Jesus Christ. All His waiting is for our good and His glory. His long nose points the way home, to His home, and our eternal home in heaven. I’m glad I had the father I had with the nose he had. And I’m real glad our Heavenly Father has a long nose of patience and acceptance. Aren’t you glad you have that same Father in Heaven?