Reunited

High Priestly Prayer – vs 24-26

John 17:24 – “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am…”

Do you desire to be with the Lord? Does it surprise you to know that His desire is to be with you? He is praying this prayer because he loves you; He is praying for your protection because you belong to him. But his ultimate desire is to have you and me with him in heaven. The Father gave us to the Son, betrothed as his bride, and the bridegroom longs for our presence with him. How beautiful the thought.

Jesus also longs for us to be with him, “to see my glory that you [the Father] have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” Human eyes cannot bear the glory of God, which we know from the time of Moses – ‘Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain’ (Ex24:17). Isaiah tells that ‘over all the glory there will be a canopy.’ That canopy appears to have been lifted when the angel announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds but the affect that it had was to fill them with fear. When Jesus came down from heaven, he did not want anyone to be afraid, so, his glory was veiled in flesh. Now that he is returning to the Father, his glory will once again be unveiled and when we go to be with him, we shall see him as he is, but more than that, we shall be like him (1John3).

Until that day arrives, we continue to serve him in the knowledge of his deep love, which surrounds us every day of the journey. We do not walk this path alone, as his prayer assures us –

“I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Not only was God revealed to us to bring us to salvation but he is continually being made known to us to bring us to a deeper understanding and into a deeper relationship, with him. Then, one day, when the journey is over, the bridegroom and bride will be gloriously reunited.

‘To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory’ (Col 1:27).