"Does a woman forget her baby at the breast, or fail to cherish the son of her womb? Yet, even if these forget, I will never forget you."
Isaiah
I believe it can be said that Jesus saw the Father as working in all the events of His life. In all of His human experiences, whether it be a beautiful sunset over Lake Tiberius, sitting down for a meal with friends, receiving the touch of a loved one or rejection from those who did not understand Him, Jesus saw the smiling face of His loving Father. He abandoned His self-will, He abandoned Himself to that inside felt experience and presence of the Father's love. It was from the intimacy of this exchange of love between Son and Father and Spirit that Jesus joyfully surrendered self-will to follow the will of the Father. And it was from this surrender of self-will in response to the Father's love that Jesus saw eternal life.
During troubling times, Isaiah tried to bring the Israelite people to this understanding of God. He speaks to them of the Father: "Does a woman forget her baby at the breast, or fail to cherish the son of her womb? Yet, even if these forget, I will never forget you."
Jesus recognized this. Jesus had a felt experience of the Father's love in every aspect of His life. And it energized Him to imitate the Father in all things. And from this, He was able to declare: "Open your eyes; the Kingdom of God is at hand.
We are a time/space people. As a result, we often operate under the delusion that the promise of eternal life only has to do with some future event. If we're good boys and girls, we will be rewarded and gain access to God's heavenly Kingdom after our physical deaths.
Yet Jesus' promise of eternal life is not just a future event. It is a "now" event. It is "now" as we place out trust in His word, and we surrender our wills to the One who loves us more intimately than a mother's love for her new born child.
In the Gospels, Jesus often finds Himself in opposition with the synagogue authorities. When He healed the crippled man by the pool in Jerusalem on the Sabbath, He was chastised by the Church authorities for breaking one of their rules. In response to their condemnation, Jesus, whose will was surrendered to the Father, simply said: "I can do nothing by myself, but only what I see the Father doing, and whatever the Father does, I do also." Jesus' relationship of intimacy with the Father is foreign to the Jewish authorities. They only see Him as putting Himself on the same level as God, and therefore, they reject His claims.
Jesus' response to their rejection is summed up in His words: "I tell you most solemnly, whoever listens to my words, and believes in the One who sent me has eternal life; without being brought to judgement, he/she has passed from death to life."
Do I see the Father working in all the events of my life? Do I see Jesus working in my family relationships, in nature, in my interactions with others? Do I experience God's intimate love for me, a love that surpasses any human love? Does this love energize me to listen to the call of the Holy Spirit, to surrender my self-will so that I may respond to God's will in all of life's situations? Do Jesus' words hold a special place in my heart and moves me towards the spaciousness and the boundlessness of God?
In the words of Isaiah:
At the favourable time I will answer you.
On the day of salvation, I will help you.
I have formed you and have appointed you as a covenant of the people.
I will restore your land
and assign you the estates that lie waste.
I will say to the prisoners, "Come Out".
And to those who are in darkness, "Show Yourselves".
God is not present in Heaven. Heaven is where God is present!
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