What Are You Looking For?

1 Jn 3:7-10 / Jn 1:35-42

Most people are fairly well along in life before they can answer with real insight the simple question that Jesus asked those two prospective disciples in today's gospel: "What are you looking for? What do you want?" The two young men fumbled for an answer and finally replied with another question, "Where do you live?"

They knew something was missing in their lives, and they couldn't quite name it, but they had a sense that Jesus might have the answer. So when he said, 'Come and see,' they went and they were not disappointed. It wasn't just Jesus'­ words and ideas that captured their imaginations and their hearts. It was his very being. The way that he always was towards them -- even when not speaking a word -- revealed a goodness in him that moved them deeply and bonded their souls to his forever. They could tell that he KNEW the Father, and that he wanted them to know the Father too.

Ever so slowly, that is what happened as those disciples walked with Jesus across those three years: Through Jesus they came to know the Father, and through Jesus they came to be more and more like the Father -- merciful, compassionate, forgiving, and faithful to the end.

Jesus wants to show us the Father, and more. He wants to help us reshape our lives in the Father's own image. It's a lifetime task, and it's the very thing we've been looking for all along.