Dear Family and Friends,

It’s been six months or so since many of us got our vaccine shots. In doing what they can to protect our physical health, our government just approved vaccine boosters. 

It’s been about nineteen months since most of us were able to freely worship Jesus amongst friends. Jesus says it’s time we receive a booster from Him as well. Our loving faithful Christ cares deeply about our spiritual health. This is His message for us today. 

“My prayer is not for them (Jesus’ disciples) alone.

I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.

May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity.

Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.

I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” John 17:20-26 NIV

There are so many messages imbedded in His prayer for us. 

Jesus is praying to the Father for each one of us. Can you receive how He feels about you?

He’s praying that we all be one in complete unity. I believe the way to be one in complete unity is to be like they were back when this passage was first written, physically present with each other.

Being together on one Zoom page is not an equivalent. Watching a message on YouTube at the same time is not being one. To be one in complete unity is to be with one another – in smaller safer gatherings. 

Jesus is praying that we represent Him well to the world. Jesus added to their numbers daily when others saw the community of believers displaying their love for Jesus and for each other.

It’s when we too are one in complete unity, when we too display our love for Jesus and for each other, that the world will see that Jesus is truly who we know He is. 

It’s time we pursue doing life together again – in smaller safer gatherings – and become faithful ambassadors for Jesus to a world that so desperately needs Him. 

Finally, Jesus wants us to be with Him. Forgive my language but try wrapping your head around that statement. Consider for a moment who is the One saying that He wants a personal relationship with you and with me. 

Do you feel loved right about now? You should because you are. 

In love always,