I like to listen to classical and instrumental music on my television. The music is usually accompanied by beautiful photography of wildlife and natural scenes. This is visual pleasing but I realized the other day, while it may make you wistful for such places, the image can’t replace the real experience.
You can see the scene, but you can’t smell the air or sense the contours of the ground beneath your feet. You have to guess how cold the stream feels when you stick your fingers in the rushing water. Pictures can elicit memories and longings, but they are shadows compared to a real experience.
God could have told his people to build an idol, like all the other gods. An idol could have been a physical reminder to the people of His presence. Something for them to help focus their religious efforts. But, He knew, like a picture it would be an empty representation.
Instead, He sent His son. He sent a part of Himself to earth. Jesus the real life representation of God. The people (and thanks to the records in the Bible, those who came after) could see Him, hear Him, even touch Him. God loved us so much that He wanted us to truly know him. No idol would suffice. The creator entered His own creation.
John 14: 9 – 11 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father,
and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.
Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.”
Roberta Writes 