Day 43 - Issue 24
John 14:7 NLT
'If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!'
For many years the Church Fathers wrestled with the knowledge that God was unknowable. Since, if God were able to be contained within the limited confines of the human mind, regardless of how complex such a human mind is, then humanity would be larger than God. The infinite God is unknowable apart from one important reality. It was the Cappadocian Fathers in the fourth century who acknowledged that God was unknowable for sure, yet God, being infinite, was perfectly capable of making himself known to humanity. Herein lies the beauty of the incarnation.
Jesus gives this reality poignancy as he reveals that knowing him means we know the Father; the seen gives introduction to the unseen. So to take time to get to know Jesus is our only means of getting to know the Father.
Recently, going through family photographs of nephews, I was astonished to see likenesses between them and their offspring, and my grandparents – they were dead before I was conscious of such things, so the only likeness I have is photos. Yet, I was left pondering the extent to which their characteristics were in some way embedded in their progeny several generations on.
I know one of my frustrations has been the tight hold my father’s worst behaviours have asserted within my own life. Temper tantrums, social awkwardness, withdrawal and isolation. For many years I recognised the symptoms yet had little success in overcoming the cause. Only as I invested in a disciplined pursuit of God through contemplative prayer did their hold loosen and I found a power within, through the power of God, to live an altogether different way. The contrast was stark. I was now drawing upon my heavenly Father’s DNA as reflected through the life and ministry of Jesus. I found the grace and ability to step from my intuitive and instinctive behaviour pattern and choose to live after the pattern of Jesus. The reality of the kingdom was birthed in my heart, as my new-found behaviour gave ample testimony to – behaviour commented on by both friends and family.
QUESTION: Whose DNA influences your behaviour?
PRAYER: May I become more and more like you, Jesus, in every passing day.
