Day 5 Jesus Only Does What He Sees the Father Doing

"Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own but only what he sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise." —John 5:19

When Children See More Clearly

My daughter Audrey was maybe five when we read a children's Bible version of the story of Joshua and the walls of Jericho together. You know the one—God commands the Israelites to march around the city, the walls come tumbling down, and then they kill every man, woman, child, and animal in the city. A bit awkward to read with your preschooler.

When we finished reading, Audrey looked up at me with those clear, honest eyes that children have before they learn to rationalize away their instincts. "I don't think God would do that," she said quietly. "That doesn't sound a lot like Jesus to me."

Out of the mouths of babes.

John 5:19 presents Jesus as the perfect revelation of what the Father is actually like—not a distorted reflection, not a partial glimpse, but the exact representation of divine character. And my daughter, without any theological training, instinctively understood what many adults struggle to accept: if Jesus reveals God's character, then anything that doesn't look like Jesus probably isn't revealing God accurately.