John 17:20-24. Jesus is praying for His disciples at the Last Supper. Here He prays not only for the apostles but also for those who will come to believe in Him through their word. He asks that we all be made one as the Father is in Jesus and Jesus is in the Father. He wants to bring all of us into that same unity so that the world will come to believe that the Father sent Jesus and loves us as He loves Jesus His Son. Jesus has given His followers the glory that the Father has given Him in order to bring about this unity. Jesus asks that all who the Father has given Him may be with Him where He is "to behold my glory which thou hast given me in love for me before the foundation of the world."

This is such a beautiful prayer - how lucky are we that our Savior pleads with His Father to make us all one with Him and share in His love with and for the Father?! Jesus wants everything for us! He wants all of us to be brought in ("that the world may believe") and all of us, the whole world, to be united with Him and His Father! After He prays this prayer, Jesus goes out and does what is necessary to have it answered - He sacrifices Himself totally in the greatest act of self-giving love in order to achieve this unity. Wow!

This sacrifice will not make us equals of Jesus', He is still God and we are not, we will, though, be able to truly see His glory - the glory His Father has bestowed on Him before the foundation of the world.

That last line has me thinking about many of the things that I have written about before - time, Heaven, who is saved, etc. ( See: To Be Continued (Until It's Not)). Jesus is God's only begotten Son. He existed with God from the beginning of time, but His glory comes from the fact that He was begotten by the Father. God is love, and God is all creation - He is always creating and renewing. Jesus was begotten fully God and full of God's glory. We will not get to fully share in that Glory because we are not God, but we will get to fully see it and appreciate it and it will bring us the greatest joy imaginable! That someone so glorious even exists is all- encompassing joy - that He loves us to the point of death is mind-boggling!

Jesus was begotten fully divine, but Jesus Christ is the same always, so Jesus was also begotten fully human. In other words, from the beginning, Jesus was what He is - fully God and fully human. Thus, we are truly created in God's image and likeness, because Jesus came first - way before we evolved into what God planned us to be. This is the cause of the fallen angels' jealousy. They were in Heaven with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They saw that God was going to create humanity - His crowning glory - in His image and likeness, with a body, just like Jesus. Rather than rejoice in God's astounding creation and love, the fallen angels could not accept being what they saw as lessened in stature by humanity, so they rebelled and lost their place in Heaven.

I also think about Jesus asking the Father that all who the Father has given Him may be with Him where He is. Where is Jesus now? He is with the Father (that is, in Heaven). Who has the Father not given to Jesus? No one, all of creation was made by Him, for Him, and through Him. So Jesus is again asking that all be saved, that the whole world come to know Him, and be unified with Him, that we all get to Heaven. That doesn't mean that some of us won't accept this monumental gift, but the fact that Jesus Himself is asking the Father for this, and was willing to sacrifice Himself in order for it to come to fruition, has to mean a whole lot, and very much puts the odds in our favor!