“Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”

- John 14:8-14 (NRSV)

Have you ever seen Jesus? I remember the experience of growing up in a moderately conservative christian church and community where this question would have been asked. It came from a perspective that enticed more of a spiritual inkling or evangelistic premise to it; the idea was that if your spirits were set right, on good terms, or having accepted the gospel message of God’s love through Jesus Christ into your life, then spiritually, you were set to one day spend all eternity with God in the Kingdom of Heaven. The christian faith in its personal experience of being lived out has particular implications to individual as well as collective narratives; however, there is also a universal or holistic side that still maintains personal context, while stretching us beyond our vision of faith.