Scripture Reflections

And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (John 17:3)
 
Eternal life is both beyond our imagination and taken for granted. We have overused the phrase, so we don’t think about it; it is nearly a cliché. Besides, who can really understand it? As a result, we don’t stop in our tracks when we hear it or read it. We superficially affirm it and move on.
 
The same could be said about knowing God. It is both a common phrase and a strange concept—how do you actually know someone you can’t see, someone who rarely speaks in words that can be heard with the ears? Thus, we superficially affirm it and move on.
 
But perhaps Jesus meant what he prayed in John 17! Perhaps he yearns for each of us to actually receive a life that is so vast, so thick, so real that the only way of describing it is “eternal,” “abundant,” or “infinite.” Perhaps he looks at each of us and thinks, “I want you to have the fullness of what I have with the Father and the Spirit—a life of love and security, of depth and substance, of richness and joy; a life with no boundaries and no limits, where neither death, futility, nor frustration ever encroaches.”
 
The only place where this life exists is in the life of the Trinity. The only way to receive it is to know the Father, Son, and Spirit. Not know in the sense of reciting the data, but know in the sense of heart-level intimacy and awestruck contemplation. Jesus’ prayer is that we would know God, and therefore have this life, but he usually only reveals himself to those willing to wait in prayer-filled faith, to listen to God in silence, and to read his word with expectancy.
 
Steven+