I Pray for Those who Come After
This prayer inspires in me a longing to be with Jesus as the Apostles were.
The love which they experienced from Him is so overwhelming I can’t even
imagine having that kind of love, even from my parents if they were alive.
To understand what I am saying one would have to live a day in my shoes; to
have lived my life in so much poverty, sometimes we didn’t know if we would
have the next meal. My dad was a good man. He was a hardworking man. In my
recollection he worked in a sawmill; he cut and hauled logs to the sawmill.
Once his foot was crushed when the logs rolled on his foot. This happened
several times. He worked in an iron ore mine; he worked building roads for
the WPA. He worked for farmers when they needed help harvesting their
fields; or when they needed help butchering. Most of the time when he helped
farmers he got paid in produce like black-eyed peas or hams and bacon, when
they butchered. Of course this was during and immediately following the
great depression of 1929 when there were no jobs to be found.
In other words he was a good man but he did not know how to show his love
for his children. The only way he demonstrated it was by doing what he had
to do to keep food on the table, a roof over our heads and clothes on our
backs. That was his way of showing us he loved us. It was that kind of love
Jesus had for His disciples and the love He has for us, only on a deeper
level than even a parent has for his child.
I wonder if it is possible for a human being, other than Jesus, the God-man
to love on that level; to have that deep compassion and true love for
another human being. Without the Holy Spirit, I don’t believe it is
possible. At least in my experience, I have never known another person who
was capable of loving with that committed devotion, even a devout believer.
This passage of scripture says to me, God and Jesus were One. Jesus desired
for the disciples to be included in that unity, just as He desires for each
of us to be unified with each other and with Him in such a close union.
It is my desire to be that close with the Lord. That is what I have prayed
for. However, I don’t know if I have demonstrated and put forth the
concerted effort it would take to be that close to the Lord. I believe it
would take a constant meditating on the Word of God, a consistent prayer
life and a burning in my soul to be as one with Him. There are too many
distractions; too much interference from outside forces and from the enemy
of our soul, Satan. He does not want us to be that close to the Lord.
Therefore he throws all these distractions at us, putting up road blocks to
hinder us, to sidetrack us in an ever increasing effort to prevent us from
having fellowship with God.
If that is the case, how can one ever be in union with the Lord as the
disciples were? In this life of so many worldly things to distract us, with
so many forces working against us, how is it possible to have that sought
after relationship with Him? And yet, my heart yearns for that oneness, that
divine Spirit to consume me; to envelope me in His love and compassion and
mercy and grace. It is the desire of my very soul to be consumed by His
Spirit and to be one with Him.
"……you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for
Him with all your heart and all your soul." (Deut. 4:29 NASB)
Nell Berry