By Josh (Guest Blogger)
At the Love Reigns conference, they handed out these little goodie bags with treats and other thoughtful items. Included in these goodie bags were blessing cards with a verse and a prayer or blessing. Each one unique, and each one personally written and thoughtfully prepared for all of the attendees. In my bag was the verse Matthew 11:28, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” I decided to read further into the verse, to consider its meaning paired with the blessing/prayer written on the card. Instead, the previous verse, Matthew 11:27, caught my attention because it says:
“All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”
Only the Father knows and experiences the love that He has for His Son, and only the Son knows and experiences the love that He has for His Father. And more! The Son can also reveal that love, that experience to whomever He chooses. So that means that we can partake in this perfectly blissful experience that is only known by the Father and His Son. Wow!
As usual, my little pea of understanding couldn’t fully comprehend what was revealed to me. I had to wait for His spirit to unravel the fullness of its meaning. The following day at the conference, we listened to John share an experience that involved his finger and a juicer and how that led him into a place where the Son worshipped the Father. All through his story I kept hearing that verse, as though it was showing me how John was experiencing the very love that only the Son knows and experiences for the Father. Christ was revealing that love to John! (If you weren’t at the Love Reigns conference, I really recommend getting it.)
When telling the story, John struggled to find the words to describe his experience, as many of us do when we are in the midst of His greatness. He couldn’t seem to find the right adjectives for what happened. But when I went back and looked at the verse again, it starts with, “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father…” All things. And I thought, “What does He mean by all things? Or rather, what isn’t ‘all things?’” It’s all-inclusive, nothing left out. It is absolute. Absolutely everything is given to Christ.
So I saw that John couldn’t begin to fully and accurately describe this revelation of the love between the Father and the Son, because it encompasses all things. How can you give an account of all things? How can you even comprehend all things? But that is what He shares with us – the love that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Cor. 13:7). All things are in love, and love is in all things as God is in all things, and as God is Love.
I’ve begun to see that Love truly does reign. His Love Reigns!
“For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to Whom be glory forever. Amen.”
Romans 11:36
Yes, Yes, Yes! This conference was my groups first ever conference and were just blown away by the love + everything we experienced. No words can describe that experience,… all of it! When we got back none of us could talk for a few days. For us this was truly love that was holy beyond words. Amazing, amazing!
“I’ve begun to see that Love truly does reign.”
To begin to see!!! Love truly reigns!!!
Oh yes! It is so exciting…so amazing!!!
It’s like beginning to breath…to come alive and live!!!
“…a place where the Son worshipped the Father.” As I read this in Johns blog the other day, I kept seeing the words and knew they were’t connecting in my heart of understanding. I kept attempting to “see” what John was expressing, I knew, because I was present at the conference that they were more than just words but until now all I was seeing were the words. “…how John was experiencing the very love that only the Son knows and experiences for the Father. Christ was revealing that love to John!” So John, through his suffering , “I walked… Read more »
Yes, much to ponder. I am even pondering the word “ponder” which means in the Greek to discuss or consider, to confer and meet with. As I read Josh’s words, and those of the other commenters, it is as though we are discussing this concept of all things. Thank you all for sharing and conversing with me. Yes, much to ponder.