"There’s a short verse in (the book of )John that I love. It tells of a group of outsiders who make their way to a disciple with an important request. “Sir,” they say, “we would [like to] see Jesus.”
"That is what we all want—we want to see Jesus for who He is and to feel His love."*
"I thought my life was about following rules and measuring up to abstract standards. I knew God loved you perfectly but didn’t feel it myself. I’m afraid I thought more about getting into heaven than being with my Heavenly Father.
You may struggle to see God as a loving Father. You may look heavenward and see not the face of love and mercy but a thicket of rules through which you must wend your way. Perhaps you believe God rules in His heavens, speaks through His prophets, and loves your sister, but you secretly wonder whether He loves you. Perhaps you have felt the iron rod in your hand but not yet felt your Savior’s love to which it leads."*
"If you, like me, can sometimes only lip-synch but not “sing the song of redeeming love,”5 what can we do? "*
"When I realized that I was spiritually face-blind, that I saw rules but not the face of the Father’s mercy, I knew it wasn’t the Church’s fault. It wasn’t God’s, and it didn’t mean everything was lost;
it’s something we all have to learn. "*
"Even the early witnesses to the Resurrection often came face-to-face with the resurrected Lord but did not recognize Him; from the Garden Tomb to the shores of Galilee, His first followers “saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.”
They had to learn to recognize Him, and so do we."*
John 21:4 4 But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus
"I also read and reread and reread the four Gospels—this time reading not to extract rules but to see who He is and what He loves. And, in time, I was swept away by the river of love that flowed from Him."*
"Jesus announced at the outset that He had come “to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind.”This wasn’t just a to-do list or good PR; it is the shape of His love."*
Doctrine and Covenants 88:49–50 49 The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not; nevertheless, the day shall come when you shall comprehend even God, being quickened in him and by him.50 Then shall ye know that ye have seen me, that I am, and that I am the true light that is in you, and that you are in me.....
2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.Doctrine and Covenants 93:1 1 Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am;
*"Sir, We Would Like to See Jesus" By Elder Robert M. Daines
Of the Seventy, October 2023
