When you are just curious

Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.

⁶ For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of the earth.

⁷ The LORD did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than the other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.

⁸ But because the LORD loved you and kept the oath He swore to your fathers, He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

⁹ Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps His covenant of loving devotion for a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments.

¹⁶ I ask that out of the riches of His glory He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being,

¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Then you, being rooted and grounded in love,

¹⁸ will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and height and depth

¹⁹ of the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

⁶ Then the LORD passed in front of Moses and called out: “The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness,

⁷ maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers on their children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

⁹ The true Light who gives light to every man was coming into the world.

¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him.

¹¹ He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.

¹² But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God—

¹³ children born not of blood, nor of the desire or will of man, but born of God.

¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

¹² Once again, Jesus spoke to the people and said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”

¹³ So the Pharisees said to Him, “You are testifying about Yourself; Your testimony is not valid.”

¹⁴ Jesus replied, “Even if I testify about Myself, My testimony is valid, because I know where I came from and where I am going. But you do not know where I came from or where I am going.

⁴ You know the way to the place where I am going.”

⁵ “Lord,” said Thomas, “we do not know where You are going, so how can we know the way?”

⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

⁷ If you had known Me, you would know My Father as well. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.”

⁸ Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”

⁹ Jesus replied, “Philip, I have been with you all this time, and still you do not know Me? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

⁹ Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

¹⁰ And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem, and the bow of war will be broken. Then He will proclaim peace to the nations. His dominion will extend from sea to sea, and from the Euphrates to the ends of the earth.

For if you return to the LORD, your brothers and sons will receive mercy in the presence of their captors and will return to this land. For the LORD your God is gracious and merciful; He will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him.”

¹⁸ Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you; therefore He rises to show you compassion, for the LORD is a just God. Blessed are all who wait for Him.

¹⁹ O people in Zion who dwell in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. He will surely be gracious when you cry for help; when He hears, He will answer you.

So he prayed to the LORD, saying, “O LORD, is this not what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I was so quick to flee toward Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion—One who relents from sending disaster.

²⁴ ‘May the LORD bless you and keep you;

²⁵ may the LORD cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;

²⁶ may the LORD lift up His countenance toward you and give you peace.’