Be-loved, Be-hold, Be-come

1. Even before Jesus does anything, the Father tell Jesus who he is (my Beloved Son) and expresses his feelings toward Jesus (with whom I am well pleased). 

• As a member of the Trinity, Jesus began his ministry of manifesting the presence of the Father on this earth by being affirmed in who he was and to whom he was valued by. As members of the body of Christ IN him, we stand also affirmed, before stepping a single foot on a houseboat or mission field, that we are Jesus' Beloved and desired by the One who made us.

2. Jesus prays to the Father: "I want them to behold my glory"

• The sheer thought of being able to not only see the glory of God, but also to contribute to it astonishes me. We can behold, we can see, we can observe the glory of the Lord! This should leave us in the fear of the Lord, yet I ask myself how often I shrug off or ignore the creation surrounding me that proclaims the glory of our Creator and Father. The sun, the moon, the stars, the wind, the rain, people around us, the food we eat declares that our God is good and life giving!

3. All of us are the beloved disciple. We are loved in the same as the love existing between the Father and Son because we are IN the Son. 

"When he had finished saying these things, he went forth to make all he prayed for happen." This last line got me. It had the same effect as if I was standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon or staring at the beauty in a sunset over the water: complete awe and wonder, witnessing something that seems too full of goodness to be true.