41 - Where I Am

There are many painful things we endure in life, but I think the most painful is strife. There are forces inside us and around us that drive us apart, so we all live with the uncertainty of being abandoned, never sure who may leave us or why. That makes love a very dangerous matter. To give our hearts to someone is to risk rejection. We become vulnerable to the whims of another person, and people, being the weak creatures we are, often end up hurting us. And for that matter, we’re just as likely to hurt them. So loving anyone here on planet earth is dangerous, and as time passes the wounds we suffer cause us to grow increasingly cautious, which leaves us with fewer and fewer friends. 

I think the most wonderful gift we will receive in heaven is peace. In particular, heaven will be a safe place to love. Separation, abandonment and betrayal won’t be there. Those you love will love you back… forever. And that kind of love will fill our hearts because that’s the way we have been loved by Jesus, and we’ll be with Him forever. 

In the passage we’re reading today Jesus is talking to some of the very people who are going to kill Him, but instead of railing against the injustice they have planned, He warns them that He is ready to die, but that they aren’t. In the future they would deeply regret what they were about to do, but by then it would be too late. Thankfully, it’s not too late for us.