The Seen Making Known the Unseen

We are now safely at our hotel in RI where we'll be for the next 6 days. The time in Rochester was such a blessing with Sarah and Grace. Sunday was a day of revisiting the past with its memories. We drove around to most of the places I had lived as a child and adult and where Sarah had lived as a child.

I'm now working on the sermon I'll be preaching at our home church on Sunday. The verse that sticks with me the most from the gospel reading is the last one, "No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known."

If we're close to someone's heart, don't we make them known? When my daughter, Sarah and our granddaughter, Gracie visited us this year at seminary, we introduced them to everyone! We could not help ourselves! We wanted to make them known because they are close to our hearts.

Speaking of which, Gracie lost her first tooth while we were visiting. She's in the picture on the left. On the right, you'll see her with her mother. They look similar, but just by seeing and knowing Gracie does not mean you know Sarah. The same goes for our relationship with God. By seeing us as believers, people get a glimpse of Christ in us, but we too are charged with making him known.

How did Jesus make the Father known? He came to the world. He came to his own. He lived among humanity and became truly human. Jesus the seen showed us the God who is unseen. Even so, as we are involved in our world, with our neighbors, and are genuinely God's children, we too, as those who are seen, can make known God the unseen through our lives and our words. If we are close to God's heart, we cannot help but make God known.

May God help us in this new year to be faithful witnesses of God's love to all.