16 From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace;
17 as the Law was given through Moses,
so grace and truth came into being through Jesus Christ.
18 No one has ever seen God.
God the only Son,
who is at the Father’s side,
has made God known.
Reflection
We don’t see God in much the same way we don’t see electricity, wind, or gravity. These things are invisible—but their effects are unmistakable.
You can’t see gravity, but Newton sure felt it when he took an apple to his noggin. Ever since humans looked out over the waves, they’ve watched the tides move – evidence of gravity. As long as they’ve looked up at the night sky, they’ve traced the orbits of the planets – evidence of gravity. And yet, it wasn’t until 2015 that scientists were able to directly detect gravitational waves, finally confirming what scientists had believed for generations. We knew what gravity did, we just couldn’t see it.
Faith works something like that. It is about learning to recognize the signs of God’s activity in the world. We may not see God directly, but we can learn to see what God does.
According to this scripture, the clearest evidence of God’s activity is grace: “From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.”
And grace leaves traces everywhere.
We see it in dramatic moments—like forgiveness offered after a deep betrayal.
We see it in ordinary moments—like a customer who responds with patience when a grocery clerk makes a mistake and has to scan the whole order again.
We see grace when someone’s life makes a dramatic turnaround.
We see grace when a life changes slowly and steadily, growing deeper in love and holiness.
Grace is the evidence of God at work. Faith is learning to see it.
by Joe Monahan
For Pondering and Prayer
Today, look for evidence of God’s grace.
Prayer: Lord, we pray that today our lives and our actions might provide evidence of your grace in the world that’s clear enough for others to discover. Amen.
