John 6

66 From that moment many of his disciples turned back and no longer accompanied him.

67 So Jesus said to the Twelve, “You don’t want to go away too, do you? ”

68 Simon Peter answered, “Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life.

69 “We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

70 Jesus replied to them, “Didn’t I choose you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil.”

71 He was referring to Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son, one of the Twelve, because he was going to betray him.

Jesus knew betrayal and abandonment, deeply and personally. Yet He chose to love.

May we see Him in the pain and abandonment we all experience at times in life, clinging to His comfort and the Comforter, to know healing AND the Healer.

Because He continued to choose love, even having experienced abandonment and ANTICIPATING betrayal, He still loved His disciples to salvation.

Have you ever thought about that? That Jesus knew what Judas was planning, yet conitinued loving him fiercely, perhaps hoping Judas may just come to believe?

That’s hope; knowing in your Godness that he would betray, but in your humanity hoping he would not.

I hope that I can begin seeing life more that way, having the realistic perspective to know people WILL hurt me, yet having the love of the Father in me that compels me to love anyway.

(Art Credit: Jesus Returning The Keys To St. Peter Painting by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres)