Our images of God are often formed early in life. Sadly, those images are of a severe, vengeful God like a policeman waiting to pounce on us for doing something wrong or a judge who takes things away from us as a punishment. Jesus taught of a God who loves us unconditionally and wants us to discover, accept, develop and use all of the talents, abilities and gifts he gave us for our own benefit and enjoyment, and the benefit and enjoyment of others.
God created us to share eternal life with him after a life of being all that he created us to be. Nicodemus, a Pharisee, who came to Jesus in the night so as not to be seen as one of his followers. He had an image of a severe God, but he respected Jesus as a teacher who had come from God. Jesus, speaking of himself in the third person, tells Nicodemus, and through Nicodemus, tells us, of a God who sent his Son into the world to save it, not condemn it. Jesus would leave us to return to the Father, but he left his Spirit to lead us to be all that God created us to be.
