Take a deep breath and settle yourself in the presence of the Lord. Ask God to be with you in this space and time and to open your heart to what it is He wants to show you today.
Give yourself a minute to list out any joys, graces, or challenges you were faced with this week. Offer them up to God as prayers of thanksgiving or as sacrifices. Thank God for them all and offer them up either in thanksgiving or as a sacrifice. Place them at His feet with trust that He has your best interest in mind.
After reading the reflection and the selected scripture by St. John, my eyes kept moving to the word “childlike”. Fr. Seth Lemaire ends his reflection with, “How much more we find ourselves to be loved by God when we allow ourselves to be childlike, to be his children!”
We’ve all heard this a million times before, but for some reason it strikes at my core a little more deeply today. What does it really mean to have a childlike faith? Have I ever stopped to reflect on what that looks like? Am I allowing myself to be loved fully by Christ?
After a good bit of reflection, I think having childlike faith and trust in God partly means that I must place everything in God’s hands willingly…and leave them there. That’s a struggle for me, the leaving-them-there part. I tend to keep checking in on it, or worrying about it, or asking God how it’s going, which means I haven’t really surrendered it because I haven’t fully placed my trust in Him. Ouch!
When I was a child, I trusted that my parents would handle just about everything. I believed they had my best interest in mind and would do everything in their power to make sure my needs and most of my wants were met. How much more does God love me? I want to trust Christ with the childlike trust I placed in my parents. I know I can, but I need his help to do so. This week, I will set an alarm for 3:00pm everyday to remind me to pray, “Jesus, I place all my trust in you.”
When I look at the crest of St. John the Beloved, I am drawn to the eagle’s talons gripping his writings on Christ. It reminds me of how firmly John held on to Christ’s words in his heart and how much stronger my faith in Christ will be if I hold His words close to my heart. John came to know Christ intimately through his childlike acceptance that Christ loved him dearly, and he wanted to share that knowledge with me so that I may also come to know that same intimacy with Christ.
Now looking at the rest of the crest, both as a whole and the individual parts, I am reminded of:
The empowering presence of the Holy Spirit.
The importance of the words of Christ and His teachings.
The miracles God works in my life.
The strength and safety that can only be found in God.
This bolsters my desire to dig into scripture to help me more fully rely on God’s strength and love for me. Afterall, it is scripture (specifically Philippians 4:13) that tells me, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
Lord, through the life of St. John, You show us that to be beloved is to trust in Your love and to rest in the closeness of Your presence. Just as John knew himself fully through his intimacy with Jesus, help us to draw near to You, to know ourselves as Your children, and to live in the security of Your unwavering love. Amen.
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