What If God Can Be Known?

“…Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father…”
John 14:9 NIV

A silhouette can tell us something about a person without letting us really see them. We notice an outline, fill in what we cannot see, and can end up feeling pretty sure we know what we are looking at. Our ideas about God can develop that way too. Some may come from childhood, some from what others have said, and some from questions life has left us with. Eventually the outline can feel complete enough that we stop asking what God might actually be like.

Philip, one of Jesus’ disciples, had spent years watching Him teach, heal, forgive, and care for people. Yet he still asked, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us” (John 14:8). Jesus did not tell him to look somewhere else. He answered, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Could Philip already be seeing part of the answer in the way Jesus noticed people, welcomed them, spoke truth, showed mercy, and loved? Perhaps Jesus had already been showing him what God is like.

If Jesus really can show us what God is like, John’s words about people who “received him” and “believed in his name” (John 1:12) begin to sound different. Receiving Jesus may be less about adding another religious belief or trying to improve what we already believe and more about beginning to trust the One who actually says He can make God known. We may not have every answer we'd like before that trust begins. Maybe trust can start with something this honest, “If You really can make God known to me, I am willing to find out.”

Jesus once said, “Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life” (John 6:47). Not only someday. He says “has.” That makes eternal life sound less like something waiting on the other side of death and more like a life with God that can begin while ordinary life is still happening. The day may look much the same from the outside. There are still decisions to make, people to care about, things we do not understand, and moments we wish had gone differently. Yet starting to trust in Jesus may mean that something new has already begun within the life we are living. Eternal life begins now. Death does not create that life, so death cannot postpone it. What if the life we thought was waiting for us has already begun to meet us here today?

Prayer

Lord Jesus, if You really can make God known to me, keep drawing me closer. Help me trust You, receive what You give, and live today in the life You have already opened to me. Amen.