John 20:17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

I always smile when I read this verse, because I can picture Mary Magdalene with her arms wrapped around Jesus’ legs, unwilling to let Him go. She had been deprived of Him once, and she didn’t want it to happen again! However, Jesus knew that He would be sending His Spirit to be with her forever, just as He had said in the Upper Room Discourse, (John 14:15) and that physical contact, even vision, wasn’t necessary. He also said something rather astounding, speaking of His disciples’ relationship with God on the same terms as His own. Jesus was indeed fully human, as well as fully divine, so we have more things in common with Him than we realize. This is a difficult thing for us to grasp properly. We are not divine, and the Mormon teaching that we become gods after death is simply a repeat of the devil’s lie in the Garden of Eden, “You will be like God.” (Genesis 3:5) However, by faith in the Son of God we are accepted as His children, and we have very little grasp of all that means. A wise parent doesn’t give a toddler everything they ask for, or let them do anything they want. We are certainly no better than toddlers, compared to God, and we need to be at peace with that. However, Father God loves us even more than human parents love their children, and that is something of the utmost importance. There is nothing God won’t do for us that is genuinely for our benefit. After all, He sent Jesus to die for us! The better we grasp that, the more boldly we will pray and the more peace and joy we will have. It is all quite amazing, and defies human logic, but it is absolutely real, and will carry us through anything we could possible experience on this earth.

There are various songs that touch on this, speaking of us as God’s friends, from Jesus’s statement in the Upper Room Discourse, (John 15:15) as well as many that speak of us as God’s children. I have sung such songs all my life, but I’m continuing to grow in my appreciation of the reality behind them. I need to remember that a disobedient child doesn’t cease to be a child by their disobedience, but they might lose the benefits of that position. Jesus was perfectly obedient to the Father, even when His flesh didn’t want to be, as in the Garden of Gethsemane. My obedience is far from perfect, but the better it gets, the deeper my fellowship with “my Father and your Father, my God and your God.” I want to be the sort of child the Father can trust to do exactly what He desires, so that God may be acknowledged as holy as His kingdom is established through His will being done, for His glory alone.

Father, thank You for this encouraging reminder. Thank You for all You did yesterday, from the Sunrise Service on through the day. Thank You for the excellent message through Sister Atsumi, and for the 10 children who came to the Easter Egg Hunt. Thank You that we weren’t overwhelmed with children! I pray that they would indeed come back each Sunday to Children’s Church and receive the pure milk of Your Word, (1 Peter 2:2) for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!