Read: John 10:22-30
His name shall be called . . . Everlasting Father. (Isa. 9:6)
One of the most rewarding—or potentially unsettling—things about being a parent is seeing the ways your children take after you. Similarly, one of the more startling things about being an adult child is recognizing the ways you’re becoming like your parents! Whether it happens via nature or nurture, the parenting relationship involves passing on a surprising number of traits.
Jesus is also like his Father. Jesus does what his Father does. In John 5:19, Jesus tells us he can do “only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” But not only does Jesus act like his Father, in the mystery of the Holy Trinity, Jesus is his Father. Later on, when the people grew frustrated in their confusion about his identity, Jesus told them plainly, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). In this way, Jesus fulfills Isaiah’s prophecy that the “son” would be called “Everlasting Father” (Isa. 9:6). Because of the unique relationship between Son and Father, we can be confident that if we want to know what God is like, all we have to do is look at Jesus: “He is the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15).
Do you want to know who God is—what he is like, what he does, whom he loves? You need only look at Jesus. The better we get to know Jesus, the better we will know the heart of the Everlasting Father.
As you pray, ask God to show you who he is.
About the Author
Sarah Sanderson is the author of The Place We Make: Breaking the Legacy of Legalized Hate. She lives with her husband and their four teenage children in Oregon.
