Red hawk hunting at sunset taken 5/9/05

Glory

May 10, 2005 Jn 17:1-11a

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you, just as you gave him authority over all people, so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him. Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ. I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do. Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began.

"I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you gave me is from you, because the words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me, because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours and everything of yours is mine, and I have been glorified in them. And now I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, while I am coming to you."

"I glorify you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do." Jesus has set the example. The world is a passing thing but with eyes on God and obedience to the will of God, there is eternal life. The glory of Jesus is the divinity of Jesus, the Word, the Son, the inseparable God of the Trinity. Jesus for a passing time was human and divine but for eternity divine. It is a lifetime of prayer, reading, listening and opening of mind and heart that is still stretching my being to fulfill the work that God has given me. At times, my work is quite clear and others it is a mystery. All that I have and all that I am is through the grace of God. I pray today for the wisdom to use what I have been given to the fullest in all that I do as the day unfolds.