But How Will We Know?

Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:5,6 (NIV)

My six-year-old daughter is constantly asking, "Where are we going?" She likes to look at the calendar and point to each day to find out what is going on. She would go through the whole year, but I usually cut her off when we get past a week or two, since I do not usually know what is going to happen beyond that. Then, we usually have to go back through and review the events again, just to make sure we got them right. A few nights ago, we were leaving our church after the calling hours of my husband's dear grandfather, to get pizza for the whole extended family. She had to know where we were getting it, where we were eating it and who was going to eat with us. Not satisfied after we answered her first round of questioning, she had to repeat the sequence again and again until she knew it by heart. Finally, my husband said, "Let's just be surprised!" She does not like to be surprised. She likes to be thoroughly prepared. She will make a good lawyer someday!

The disciples in the passage above also wanted to know exactly where Jesus was going and how they could follow. Jesus just explained to them that He would be going away, to prepare them a place (Heaven) and that there would be room enough for all (v. 2). He also told them they would follow Him, but not right away (John 13:36). Jesus even told them He would come back and get them (John 14:3), and they still wanted to know how to get there. Jesus told them that He is the way, and also that if they know Him, they know His Father, and again they still insisted that he just show them, so they could know for sure.

I can imagine Jesus' frustration with them, because it is like that with my daughter. If she only could rest in the knowledge that I know, and that I will take care of where we are going, she could be free to enjoy the ride. But she has to know exactly, just in case of whatever, just like the disciples. They did not quite trust Jesus; they wanted to have a map to heaven, just in case something happened. At the end of chapter 13, Peter says that he is willing to die to go with Jesus right now. But Jesus puts him in his place.

I know in regard to heaven, I also get this kind of anxiety. How will I know I will go there when I die? Simply put, in Jesus' own words, if I know Him, that is enough. All things follow that. He goes on in chapter 14 to add that if we know Him and love Him, we will obey Him (v. 23), and we will also know the Father. How simple is that? Yet we think this is not enough sometimes. We make it more complicated than that. We have to see things for ourselves, to find out for ourselves. We need a direct map to heaven, just in case we lose the way. But there is no other way than knowing Jesus. How do we know Him? We recognize that He is our Savior, and then we study the Word, which is Him (John 1). Simple? Yes. Difficult? We spend our whole lives trying to work it out. But, blesses be the Lord, His grace is sufficient to complete this task.

God, I want to know You. Fill me up with Your Word, increase my appetite for it, so that I might know You fully. Amen.

Nikki Hamsher