Bible Reading: John 14:6-7
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. John 14:6
YOU’VE MADE UP your mind. Instead of splitting your summer between lazing on the beach and scraping together odd chores to make money, you want an adventure. You want to go where none of your friends has gone before. You want to visit your cousin.
The attraction-and the problem: Your cousin lives on the other side of the planet in Borneo, where his scientist parents study insects. You don’t know how to get there or where to find him. So you ask around.
You get all kinds of advice, but not all the responses you hear are helpful:
“Go to China and turn south for a few thousand miles. Lotsa luck.”
“Take the Bornean Flying Cockroach Airline.”
“Your cousin and his family must have misplaced their brains-and it sounds like it runs in the family.”
But finally your search pays off. “Borneo? You want to get to Borneo? I was born and raised in Borneo!” a professor at a nearby college tells you proudly. “And I’m headed back there for the summer. I know your cousin, and I’ll be happy to take you right to him.”
Suppose you were actually hunting for a far-off cousin. Which bit of advice would help you most? It’s no contest! You want to link up with someone who not only knows where you are going and how to get there but also knows your cousin and precisely how to find him.
You might never attempt an adventure to a hard-to-find location. But if you’re a Christian, you are already on an all-important adventure. God the Father has invited you to come to him. James says, “Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you” (4:8). The Father invites you to enjoy a close relationship with him right now. Your life’s destination, in fact, is God. He’s the one you want to find.
But how do you get to him? Who can show you the way? Can you get to God without Jesus? No way. Not even close. Without Christ you can’t get there from here, because to know the Father, you have to know the Son. To love the Father, you have to love Jesus Christ. To serve the Father, you have to serve Christ.
Jesus doesn’t just show the way to the Father; he is the way! He’s not a road map; he’s the road. And he welcomes you to come through him to the loving Father.
REFLECT: How does it feel knowing that Jesus cares enough about you that he came to lead you to the Father?
PRAY: God, thanks that I don’t have to stumble through life to find you. Thank you for sending your Son, Jesus, to show me the way to yourself.
