Revealing the Father

My family was reading from Colossians the other day, and we started talking about how "in Christ all the fullness of God lives in bodily form". We started talking about how God spoke and worked and revealed himself to Israel in the Old Testament, but Jesus reveals this work of the Father even more clearly and completely. So how DID Yahweh reveal himself in the Old Testament, and how did Jesus "show the Father" to his disciples? 

One compelling example that came up, was how God "brought the rains" and was owed thanks and praise for the harvest. There was even a tithe on it to acknowledge that it originally came from God (it's not just a "gift" but a "giving back"). But it's hard for us humans, in our lack of faith and constancy, to properly thank God for each harvest, year in and year out. 

So then when we come across the miracle of Jesus feeding the thousands from a handful of bread and fish, he teaches us something new about the "Kingdom of God" come to earth, but it is also NOT a new thing. It's just another type of "harvest", where bits of bread and fish are sent out, and back comes a harvest of 30-fold or 60-fold or 100-fold. Doesn't it always happen like that anyway? But when it happens through a person who looks like us, from hands that we can see, and it happens right away, it's easier for us to see the miracle in it, and praise the one by whom it comes. 

And so we SHOULD give Jesus all the honor and glory and praise and blessing. But part of his ministry was to allow us to see and understand his Father better. And so we should seek to recognize -- clearly and often -- how our heavenly Father works to bless us every day, in the "ordinary" world around us. 

We know that the Holy Spirit resides in us, and that Jesus sent this Spirit when he left this world, to guide us in his place. But we shouldn't forget that part of the work of Jesus was to "reveal the Father", and that the Holy Spirit also gives us "eyes to see" how God provides for us and blesses us in the world we inhabit, year in and year out.