“Father, I want those you gave me to be with me, right where I am, so they can see my glory, the splendor you gave me, having loved me long before there ever was a world. Righteous Father, the world has never known you, but I have known you, and these disciples know that you sent me on this mission. I have made your very being known to them— Who you are and what you do— and continue to make it known, so that your love for me might be in them exactly as I am in them.” (John 17:24-26 MSG)
Jesus is praying for unity toward the end of this chapter. “Make them one, Father” he says of us, “as You and I are one.” Basically, His point is that we can experience just a taste of His glory by being unified with both Him and each other. This is when He launches into the last few verses. It is almost as if you can hear Him pleading our cause – because of His great love toward us He is saying, I so much want these adopted sons and daughters to be with Me, right here where I am! I long for them to experience what it is like to experience living in my glory and even more, to see the amazing magnificence of the splendor that You, My Father, gave me. You loved me long before the world, the universe or anything else even existed. Jesus then says of God, you are righteous and the world doesn’t understand you – it never has and it never will. But I know you. But, Jesus says, I have known you. I know you intimately like no one else. And now, since I have been to earth, there are followers of me who know that You sent me here on a mission. Throughout many of our talks and with the way I live my life, I have made it very evident to them Who You are and what You do and I am not going to stop making it known to them. I want them to know that the great love that You have for Me can be in them just like I am in them.
That’s such a glimpse into the way Christ feels about us! Can you see the love He has for us? I often wonder what it is about the human being that causes the heart of God to be full of compassion or for Him to grieve over us, or to even try to understand the fathom of His great love for us. His mercies, they fail not, says the Psalmist (frequently!). In other words, we falter and fumble and fail again and again, yet for some reason He is willing to forgive when we ask. And then forget we ever did it. How amazing. Sometimes I can look at people and see the unlovable, mean, bitter, ugly side of their words and actions — those who raise their fists and curse God and boldly claim they can do life without Him, and think, gosh why would God even bother then? But so great is His love… so vast His arms, that He can take those stony hearts and turn them into compassionate hearts. You read stories about cynical agnostics who had one encounter with the living God and it rocked them completely. St. Paul was one of the first men who spoke of a radical transformation of encountering God, and it so transformed Him that He became one of the primary writers in the New Testament. This is why God does not give up. For He sees the heart of men, and He knows why lies beneath that bravado and bluster. The reality of our hearts are not hidden from Him. He is ALL knowing, ALL seeing, ALL present. I can’t grasp that. In the words of C3P0, “It is quite beyond my capacity.”
Our Father in Heaven, Creator of the universe and the one in whom all creation subsists, loves us. This is something that should profoundly affect the course of my daily life — the actions I do, the words I speak, the thoughts I think. I am loved. May the words of my mouth and thoughts of my heart be pleasing Lord. May I love You with all I am and may I love others as an outflow of my love for You.