I know that my ability to love has grown from my younger years to
my today. My ability to love has grown from last year to present
time. I believe that love is always evolving and growing and that
we never really reach a pinnacle in love. You never hit the top of your
ability to love someone or something.
I have loved many people over my years but the person, or yard
stick I measure my love against, is the love I have for my
Grandmother. There is not another human being I have loved or
liked more than that woman. There was not another soul in this earth that
has made me feel more myself, valued, loved and appreciated than she did.
She was and forever will be my favorite person. God blessed me more
than any person ever deserves to be blessed just knowing that woman, but
getting to call her my Nan, well there truly are not words to express how my
heart feels about that.
I have been told that when you have children your heart expands
and you love in a way you never understood before, and I have yet to understand
that kind of love. I do believe it’s possible, but I don’t understand
it. I do understand the kind of love that will allow you to forgive
someone more times than they deserve to be forgiven and the kind of love that
allows you to see the beauty of their heart instead of their mistakes.
I am saying all of this because after reading John 17 tonight,
especially 13-26, I feel like this was Jesus’s love letter to us.
As I was reading this my heart just felt loved. Jesus
was going on and on to God about how we should be taken care of. He was
asking and at times it almost seemed like he was pleading with God, on our
behalf. He was saying, I have given them Your word, I have told them what
You have to say and now the world hates them because they believe Me, so please
take care of them. Protect them, keep them safe and from the evil
one.
It’s rather beautiful. It’s this love letter of a Son to his
Father, saying, Father, please, watch over the people that I so tenderly
love. Keep them safe, as I have brought them to you. I have done as
you have asked of Me and I have taught them of You and now they believe, and I
must leave them, so please keep them protected. Don’t let evil harm them
and keep them safe from the world. Allow them to be strong as they
continue to go into the world and tell people about You Father.
He is saying I’ve shown them You Father. I have shown them
who You are. I’ve shown them Your characteristics, what is right and
wrong and perfect in Your sight. I have told them to love just as
You have loved Me and to share that love with the people in the world.
And this verse I just love this verse. In John 17:21
Jesus says, That they all may be one, (just) as You, Father, are in Me and I in
You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe and be
convinced that You have sent Me.
This is just amazing. Keep in mind this is before Jesus is
going to the Cross. He is asking God, to give us, you and me, the ability
to become one with each other like He (Jesus) has become one with God.
Jesus is asking God for us all to be united as one. That there not
be a division between Jesus, God, you and I. That the love between us all
be equal and fluid. What a beautiful vision this is for us.
Jesus then goes on in verse 24-26 to say to God. Father, I
desire that they also whom You have entrusted to Me (as Your gift to Me) may be
with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory, which You have given Me
(Your love gift to Me); for You loved me before the foundation of the
world. (25) O just and righteous Father, although the world has not known
You and has failed to recognize You and has never acknowledged You, I have
known You (continually); and these men understand and know that You have sent
Me. (26) I have made Your name known to them and revealed Your character
and Your very Self, and I will continue to make (You) known, that the love
which You have bestowed upon Me may be in them (felt in their hearts) and that
I (Myself) may be in them.
Do you see the love letter here? This is the epitome of a
love letter. This makes all love letters look foolish and amateur.
This love letter is for you. You see that? This is a love letter to
God for you. He is saying to God, look I have done all you have asked Me
to do. I have picked the men, all of them but Judas are doing Your work,
and Judas was needed to fulfill Your plan for Me. I have educated them,
shown them, loved them, cared for them I have done all I can do now please My
just and righteous Father, please, let them come with Me, so they can see My glory.
I just don’t have words for this. Jesus has taken love to a
new level. Not only does he clearly demonstrate that he loves us
unconditionally when he goes to the Cross to die for our sins but to go to God
before this and plead for us, this is beyond love.
What sticks out to me with this is that Jesus, is going to God
with all of his requests for us and He is telling God, please let them know
what it’s like to be one with each other. Let them be one
with each other like You and I are one. Let’s have this love that just
flows from all of us and is equal in balance and shared among all
people. And God agrees! God says OK! Boy have we
let them down!
If we can take one part of this love letter that Jesus said to God
on our behalf, and make it true, just image the changes we would see in our
lives. Imagine the changes we would see in the world. I think
we should set ourselves, as believers in Jesus, believers in God and believers
in following the Word of God, to do this.
I challenge you to find something in this chapter that strikes a
chord with you and prayerfully and purposefully be about changing it.
Change it in yourself, change it in your family, change it in your friends,
change it in your work place and see the change begin to spread around
you. All it takes is one person to say, I am going to be the one who
changes to activate change, how about that be you! I am in… Are
you?
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