"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know" (John 14:1-4). The first calling slowed my heart today, as "troubled" well-described my heart's condition. But my Jesus didn't just tell me to not be troubled- even if He did, that would simply be enough- He promised that He is preparing something grander for me, and more spectacular than that, He promises to be with me! To come back for me! How my heart longs for this tonight; longs, yet rejoices in the fact that His Spirit dwells within me- how I have forgotten this the last few weeks!
"He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded" (John 13:4, 5). I love how this verse shows the humility of my Savior- He laid aside His garments as He did His heavenly glory when He left His throne- to wash the filth off his traitor's feet.
"Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?" (John 14:9). I can just hear the pain in His voice as He looks at Philip with hurt in His eyes, thinking back over the last few years He has spent pouring His life into these men. These men, who were privileged and chosen to walk with Christ, live with Christ, study His actions, listen to His prayers, they still didn't get it, didn't understand, couldn't comprehend.
"Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end" (John 13:1). This has to be one of the verses about Christ that I love the most. "He loved His own". In the nearing of my Lord's hardest hours on this earth, His focus was on the sinful, forgetful, hard-headed men who gave up everything to follow Him. He chose them, but greater than that, He loved them.
Oh Savior, I would that You would draw me to Your side. Thank You for this morning's reminder of Your everlasting, penetrating, heart-transforming love.
