Arise, Let Us Go Hence

John 14:23-25;29;31 – [Jesus said:] "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him. These words you hear are not my own: they belong to the Father who sent me. All this I have spoken while still with you. But the counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and will remind you of everything I have said to you. I have told you now before it happens so that when it does happen, you will believe. Arise, let us go hence."

There are few books we may go back to read a second or third time. But the Bible is different. The more we read it, the more interesting it becomes, and the more levels of meaning are revealed. I've read John 14 many times over the years. When I read it again this week, it was like I had never seen it before. This is something that happens frequently to those who persist in reading the scriptures. A window opens suddenly, and a familiar passage takes on an altogether new significance. This chapter contains the discourse Jesus gave his disciples after the Last Supper, and before the terrible events that would soon catch them up. There were words of comfort that they couldn't understand right then, but that would come back to them later. It is like that with us when we read. That which seems to have nothing to say to us today, the Spirit can call back to our memory later as the circumstances of life change. And we sit back in amazement and say "Wow! How come I didn't see this before?" These insights are given, that we may follow Christ's admonition at the end of this chapter: "Arise, let go hence."

Prayer: Our Father, as we "go hence" to the day before us, grant that your Spirit may bring to our remembrance the words of counsel and comfort that have nourished our spirits during times of meditation in your word. Amen.