Big Love
“I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”
John 17 is my very favorite chapter in the bible. I love that in the moments right before the Passion, Jesus chose to pray for us. While He’s in the garden and His disciples are nodding off, He burns the midnight oil praying for us. He’s faithful to us until the very end.
Sisters, Jesus' prayers in John 17 are basically - it demonstrates Jesus’ big love for us. Jesus asks that we could be united to the Father as He is - and He and the Father are one. He asks for us to share in His joy, and He consecrates Himself for us. He lays down His life for us - so that we could share everything in His life.
Jesus died to share everything with us.
Jesus didn’t die on a cross simply because it was required of Him. He died for love of us. He died because He loved us too much to let us go. He doesn’t let go of us - not in the garden, not on the cross, and not in the resurrection - He shares everything with us.
Sisters, if I were about to face my own Passion, I doubt that I could have prayed the prayers that Jesus did. I doubt that my love would be big enough to encompass anyone other than myself. I’d probably be selfish with my prayers, but our Jesus was and is too faithful for that. Today, I’m praying for the courage to love like Him, to love with His big love.
Father,
Thank You for loving us until the very end, for being so faithful to us. Thank You for choosing to pray for us - for being more concerned with our union with You than Your own safety. Thank You for giving Yourself to us again and again so that we can share in all of Your victories.
God, teach us how to love like You - to love with the same BIG love that You have. Teach us to check ourselves and our egos first thing when we wake up in the morning, so that we can discover how to love like You do.
God, we love You. Help us love You with the BIG love that You have. Amen.