Reflecting Him…

Every now and then I come across a reflection I really like. Such is the case for this weekend’s gospel from John. For simplicity I have cut and pasted the text with some minor corrections to make it easier to read and provided the original link at the conclusion of this column.

Fascinating gospel reading because it describes our own personal journey of faith – when it begins, how it works and where it will end.

Let’s start with the beginning of our faith journey – Jesus says: “You are not looking for me because you have seen signs but because you have eaten your fill of the loaves.” This happens to all of us who call themselves Christians. At some point in our life, we recognize there is something missing. Our stomachs and minds may be full of material things, but our spirit still seems to be hungry. We notice a void and look to fill it. Or perhaps we have been through a bad turn in our lives, and we reach out for something bigger than ourselves for comfort or strength. Whatever the case, we seek and at this moment, our journey of faith begins.

As we begin to seek, we realize the objective of our searching is to find something – someone – that is bigger than ourselves – someone who will always be there for us. Listen again to the words of Jesus: “You should not be working for perishable food but for food that remains until life eternal.” It’s because at this point in our faith journey we realize our bodies are mortal and our days numbered, and our natural urge is to extend our mortality. We recognize eternity is beyond the grasp of our mortal bodies and minds but discover eternity could be within our grasp if we look toward Jesus Christ.

Then we come to the next leg of our journey. We have acknowledged we want more from our life – we are hungry for something greater – we realize that “something” could be our belief in Jesus Christ. But how do we come to the point of believing? Listen again to the words of Jesus: “This is the work of God; have faith in the One he sent.” In one sentence, Jesus tells us the work of God is to give us faith and faith comes from the one person he sent. In one sentence, our eyes are opened to the mystery of faith. We are led to understand that the work of God is to give us faith and its faith that brings us home to him.
Have you ever thought of this before? Have you ever thought the purpose of God is to instill faith in each of us so He can bring us home? I don’t know about you, but I somehow thought God was about greater things. . . you know, ruling heaven, making sure all was right in his kingdom, maybe even watching over all those millions of angels to be sure all their harps were all on key. But instead, we are told God really is about us.  God’s purpose is to be sure we are given the gift of faith so we can, one day, be with him. WOW!

For me, this is an enormous revelation. God is about me. God is about you. This humbling. When you think about it, every Gospel passage really leads us to this. The entire Bible—both Old and New – is about this. We are paramount in the mind of God. He loves us so much his purpose is to have us believe enough in him that we are given faith – become faithful – and through our faith we begin a journey that brings us to eternal life with Him.

Now we can begin to feel and to understand what Jesus he is about and why came. Listen again to the words of scripture: “This is the work of God: have faith in the One he sent.”

We all know who is the One he sent. It is, of course, our friend Jesus Christ. Now we understand how the mission of God is fulfilled. His mission is to bring us home to him. His messenger was His son Jesus Christ. Now we understand why it is God gave us His son. So, we could believe and be saved.

In our own humanness, we could not discover God on our own. In the Old Testament, we hear of God giving signs and sending messengers, but it was not until He sent his very son, Jesus Christ, that we were fully capable of grasping the message and starting our journey home.

Think about the enormity of this revelation. First God’s purpose is to give us faith so we can be united with Him and that God’s love for us was so great and his longing for us to be with Him was so deep he then sent his son, Jesus, to lead us home.
Just think about what this says to each of us.  Do we ever think we are not very important to anyone? The answer is, we are so important to God that his whole mission is to make sure we find our way home to Him.

Do we ever think we are alone and ultimately; no one really cares what happens to us? The answer is God cares. He cares so much he gave us His son to bring us home.

Do we ever doubt our faith? Have misgivings about trying to live a faith filled life? The answer is don’t focus on these misgivings. Our entire life is predicated upon a belief system that says: I believe in God, and I accept his son Jesus as my savior so I can live forever with him.

Do we ever wonder about our acts of kindness? Do we ever think maybe they are not worth anything? They are important because every act of kindness mirrors God’s love for us. Every time we perform an act of kindness, we are allowing someone else to see a small piece of God revealed.

For you and for me, this gospel passage must be extraordinarily important. In it is revealed God’s plan. In it is revealed God’s messenger. In it is revealed the enormity of God’s love for us. In it is revealed the promise of our faith, we believe because we know our belief gives us the promise of everlasting love and life.

https://reflectionsonhim.com/2012/05/16/john-6-24-35/

God Bless,

Deacon John