"Whoever has seen me has seen the Father."
In January 1984, Huey Lewis and the News released a single called "I Want a New Drug." I was 12 years old at the time and somewhat naive, but I loved the song. For five years, every time i heard the song, I sang along with it, "I want a new truck." At eighteen, I was shocked when a friend corrected my singing and told me the actual lyrics because, in all truth, I really wanted a new truck!
In communication theory, there is a sender, message, medium, and receiver. A breakthrough in this theory came with the understanding that no matter what the intention of the sender, how accurate the message, or how clear the medium was, communication only really happened if the receiver understood the message.
In the above example, until explicitly corrected, my ignorance of the actual lyrics wasn't based on what I heard, but upon how I interpreted what I heard. It was, in some sense, invincible ignorance because no matter how often the message was communicated to me, I always interpreted it according to my own frame of reference. I didn't want a new drug. I wanted a new truck! It doesn't even make sense with any of the other lyrics. *sigh*
Anyway...
God has communicated to us. It was through his Word, the only begotten Son, that the whole universe came into being. Because of this, we know that upon true observation of the created world we can come to a knowledge of God's existence. If we're careful, certain attributes of God may also be known: beauty, goodness, majesty, power, for example. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God." Creation, itself, reveals something of the Creator.
But God did not stop there. "And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as the Father's only Son, full or grace and truth." God chose to reveal himself completely to us through the incarnation of his Son, Jesus. He communicated all that He is through the medium of human flesh, through Jesus, the final Word.
Michael Card, not Huey Lewis and the News, has a song, "The Final Word," that expresses this truth:
He spoke the Incarnation and then so was born the Son.
His final word was Jesus, He needed no other one.
Spoke flesh and blood so He could bleed and make a way Divine.
And so was born the baby who would die to make it mine.
And so the Light became alive
And manna became Man.
Eternity stepped into time
So we could understand.
So we could understand. The final Word, Jesus, was spoken for us by the Father with the Holy Spirit. Does our frame of reference allow us to hear this Word? To know Jesus is to know God the Father. Although we hear in small ways each week part of the Jesus story, I always recommend that at least once a year we read an entire Gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John) from start to finish to understand this Word, Jesus, and, therefore, our Father. Will you listen?