Father, I desire those You have given Me to be with Me where I am. Then they will see My glory, which You have given Me because You loved Me before the world’s foundation. John 17:24. HCSB
Every human has the same longing, the same driving desire, that they would be seen, and known, and loved. Each has treasures of heart and soul, beauty within that makes us unique, glories deposited, creative thoughts, loving impulses, beautiful memories, things we cherished and loved. What we are in essence; beautiful dreamers, fragrant, lovely bouquets, pearls in a clear pool. Deposits of brilliant experience, creative expressions like jewels, battles won and lost. We long to find someone tender enough, gentle enough, to open our treasured selves and cherish it.
Did you imagine Jesus was so different from that? Is he so much God sovereign who does not need or desire? Or is he as any man, longing for companionship? Yearning for love, yearning for a lover, longing for someone bold enough, gentle enough, kind enough to look within him, and come close? Someone to see him, truly see him, to enter that intimate place of all he is, unveiled, revealed; the glories that were given him, the glories that were him, glories that would be seen and treasured? One to lay on his breast and adore, as they are adored, to cherish as they are cherished? "Then they will see my glory..."
What lover is this? He does not live above me, above my affection. He lives for my affection. He lives that close. He does not live as sovereign God apart, but as the son of man, as God with me; longing for my heart revealed, for my company, for my companionship. For the fragrance of my broken jar. Our hearts touch, like molten metal, they merge. Everything he is I long to see, to be; everything I am, he longs to have.
The revealing of lover’s hearts, of souls bared, all failures dissolved in that intimate embrace. All beauty, all that is lovely, blended up in adoration, lost in the warmth of souls merged, hearts grown together. "Father I desire" he prays. Desire, from a heart so pure, from a heart so full; desire in the perfect passion of divine feeling. That they would "be with me where I am." That is it; the simple unimaginable loveliness of the gospel, Jesus, God in human flesh, longing, desiring, crying out only one thing, "be with me."
Jesus, my lover, your beauty takes my breath away. Seeing you like this, vulnerable, feeling, desiring me so, leaves me undone. It leaves me faint with love. I am lost for words. I am lost forever in your love.
© 2020 James Gorham