Getting to know him

“Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”       John 14:9

How do you get to know the real Jesus? It won’t be by watching TV documentaries or listening to lectures on history.

Dr. Diane Komp, chief of pediatric oncology at Yale University’s School of medicine for many years, got to know Him by seeing the stamp of the Almighty in the faces and experiences of dying children. C.S. Lewis overcame his skepticism by studying the New Testament, finally concluding that it made more sense and was more rational to accept and believe the New Testament record than to doubt it. Dr. C.E.M. Joad, the agnostic psychology professor at the University of London, got to know Him by theorizing that man’s horrible baseness and inhumanity to his fellow man has to have its antithesis or its opposite.

The best way to discover God is by going to the New Testament, starting with the Gospel of John. Immerse yourself in it. Pray as you read. Ask Him to touch your life. And what should you expect when you start your search for God? Paul had a “Damascus road” encounter as Jesus literally revealed Himself, but you are more likely to experience what I did years ago.

As a high school boy, very early before sunrise, I would make my way to St. John’s Cathedral, slip in through the back door and practice playing the organ. Never shall I forget the experience of watching the dark stained glass windows as the sun slowly rose and illuminated the scenes from the life of Jesus. Slowly the light drove away the darkness and I beheld the beauty created in stained glass.

That’s the way it often is as the darkness fades, eventually the Son rises in your heart and you know!