81. That They May Know You
R
Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
John 17:3I
Nthis prayer Jesus was speaking to his Father about how we, God’s
children, could find eternal life. His definition of eternal life was
simply knowing the Father and the Son.
How often God had tried to draw people to a knowledge of him-
self and yet they had missed his message. “Come and know me,” he
had said. “Come home. I am waiting. Come and know me as I know
you.” How many times had he professed his love? And yet they had
failed to hear.
Finally he made a heart-wrenching decision. He decided to send
his one and only Son to earth to demonstrate the love we had re-
fused to see. He decided to dress the deepest yearning of his heart in
the fragile flesh of humanity and do the job in person.
He sent a child into the womb of a woman, into the family of a
carpenter, into the nation of a rebellious and a prideful people who
would turn their backs on him. He knew full well what a risk he was