Made Known

After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.
“I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.” John 17:1-8 

We often hear people say they have "friends" on Facebook, and some of their friends post things that go viral. We all find joy in hearing about the lives of those we know well, and enjoy the jokes and videos from the less known. We really are close to very few people, those who touch our lives on a daily basis, those who stop and offer us a drink, those who life us up and reshape us, those who help change the bad direction into a good road.

Jesus, at the end of his ministry talks about his friends and his relationship to God. It is a level of intimacy that we rarely have, and yet we find that Jesus has given us to the Creator, as he cared for his disciples in his earthly life, to be molded, shaped and built into the masterpiece of love and compassion for the good of the world.He does not throw his hands up, but puts his hand to the wheel, preparing each of us for a deep relationship with a loving God. Each of us is reminded today of the depth of God's love for us, the closeness of God's care and the radical intimacy that we have through Christ.

Today I ask God to help me walk with love and compassion on my journey. May we live as those molded, shaped, caressed and sent by a loving Creator. May we share the love we have as we made Christ known in our deeds of caring and compassion.