GUEST WRITER:Emily Swanson

In my quiet time of worship I said to God, “I want to enter your presence with praise. Sometimes I long to know what you look like. I know you are holy and attended by angels; but I long to know you!”

My Father replied, “I sent my Son that you might know me. ‘He who has seen the Son has seen the Father’, and you can see my character in My Son. Remember His commitment in the temple as a little boy; His commitment as a man when He ‘set His face toward Jerusalem and the cross’. Also remember His communion with others; His disciples, Mary, Martha, Lazarus, the wedding feast, Nicodemus, the many people who stopped Him along the way to talk. He was never too busy; neither am I.”

Healing is another attribute of God as expressed by Jesus on many occasions. The gentleness of those strong hands that made a “mud-pack’ with clay and spittle and applied it to the eyes of a blind man. See his compassion for the woman in adultery as she was dragged before Him. I see His forgiveness even to the cross as He looked upon His accusers and His own disciples who had forsaken Him. He knows rejection…the families and friends of Nazareth rejected Him; there was a moment on the cross when He felt rejection of the Father as He took on the sin of the world. Still He is rejected of men even after His sacrifice. He is the ultimate of love (AGAPE). He laid down His life willingly. He is patient and longsuffering. I see Him teaching His disciples and yet see their misunderstanding of what He was really about. (They squabbled over first place in the kingdom like children squabbling over “who’s first at bat”.)

He was gentle and kind as He took the little children to Him and as He fed the hungry multitudes. He was powerful as He called Lazarus forth from the grave and when He calmed the story sea. He cast demons out which recognized Him as the Son of God. He was concerned as He gave His mother over to John’s care at His death on the cross. He was sorrowful and compassionate…He wept. He showed righteous anger as He ran off the moneychangers from the temple. He showed grace even on the soldier whose ear was cut off by Peter. He was totally unprejudiced. He ate with publicans and sinners; communed with Sadducees and Pharisees, Roman Soldiers, Jews and Greeks. He was merciful…see the widow whom Jesus gave back her son. He was faithful to keep His promises,

The Father said, you have seen My Face in the person of Jesus. My Character is there in My Son. See ‘Family Resemblance”.