Jn. 14:8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
Jn. 14:15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
“Show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” In that one statement, and whether he realized it or not, Philip the apostle verbalized the deepest fear and hope of every member of the human race (whether we realize it or not)!
Is this not the nagging obsession of atheists?…that the Father we believe in is too good to be true? “Show Him to us,” they mockingly demand.
We know why it matters so much to us to bear witness to His love and what He has done for us and for the world. Why does it matter so much to unbelievers that we believe unless some last, remote stronghold of hope remains in their hearts that there is a Father and that He could somehow vaporize their dis-ease and convince them that they too have been accepted?
“Show us the Father” must also be the heart-cry of orphans, abandoned children, children who have been trafficked, children whose parents are dying before their eyes and all of the rest of us who dread the thought of being alone in life. It is agony. So much so that, for some, it is better to cocoon themselves in contempt or bitterness or self-assurance than to have their most raw spiritual nerve prodded again.
Since our inception, JMI adopted 8 global initiatives toward which we would devote our resources. Those initiatives were each worthy in their own right, but honestly, too ambitious for a host of nonprofits, much less our one.
For that reason, we are narrowing our focus to the one initiative that has consistently represented our greatest passion: Orphans and acutely vulnerable children. That’s why we exist.
And what of the other 7 initiatives? If you’ll notice, they all represent issues impacting orphans: poverty; human trafficking; disease; education deficits; spiritual confusion; (dangerous) environments; and war (and violence). For that reason, they will continue to matter, but as they revolve around at-risk children. Notice also that “orphans and acutely vulnerable children” is the only one of the bunch that expresses itself in persons rather than as issues. That matters too!
Jesus knew from the beginning that we would be stuck between the rock of not trusting in the graciousness of a forgiving Father and the hard place of fearing we would be “left as orphans.” And so he sent us “another Advocate,” to “help you and be with you forever.”
If then, being left as orphans is our biggest fear in life, let us become their advocates. Let us see them. Let us know them. Let us come to them. And let our love and faith live in them as the Spirit sees and knows and comes to us and lives in us. That’s the way the Father is shown!
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