If you’ve met me, you might have noticed I’m guarded. I admit it. But underneath a few prickles, I’m a softy at heart. So when I read John 11 to my kids at the breakfast table yesterday morning, I melted into a puddle of tears. As I excused myself to grab some tea and regain my composure, one of the littles commented, “Mommy is crying,” to which another child answered, “It’s because she understands what it means.”

I love my kids. And I love that they get it. I understood what it meant, and it touched me.

“But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. ⁵⁰ Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” ⁵¹ He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, ⁵² and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.”

That little bit in bold… that is where my voice caught in my throat.

In John 10, Jesus said it like this: “¹⁴ I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, ¹⁵ just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶ And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.“

He’s talking about me…

… and you, if you are not a Jew. We are the sheep who are not of Israel’s fold, the children who are scattered abroad. We are the pieces of His heart; people who God knew before the foundations, that we would love Him and follow Him. And so, he speaks of us as his children, even 2000 years before our birth. He died to save us, adopt us, and gather us together with all who will call upon His name. And that moves me.

Sometimes I wonder if are so used to the concept of the gospel that even though we believe it, we grow a little callous, and don’t comprehend how great God’s love for us really is.

How determined,

how steadfast,

how deep, personal, and sacrificial.

How eternal.

For us. Dust.

God has always loved you. Whatever you think you are, you are wanted.

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