In today’s reading we see the transition of Peter as a devout Jew who had followed The Law his entire life to someone who finally saw the heart of God when it comes to His entire creation. Acts 10:34-35, 34 Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right. God does not discriminate. He loves everyone equally and wants all to come into a personal relationship with Him. While we show favoritism, God is able to see the beauty in everyone equally and loves us all the same. The other beautiful thing about our relationship with God is this: We are unable to do anything to make Him love us any more or less. God’s love is perfect.

Today, the day after Easter celebration of our risen Lord, we read the final chapter in the Gospels of Jesus Christ. In this chapter we read about Jesus’ final appearance to His disciples. Over the course of these last 3 months we have witnessed many things through the eyes of the authors of these four gospels. One of the things I noticed about John’s account is the intimacy with which it was written. John is the self-proclaimed “one who Jesus loved”, and while this seems arrogant at times because Jesus loved all His disciples equally, John takes His relationship with Jesus very personally, which should be an example for us all. When we talk about a personal relationship with Jesus, we should really mean it to be personal. While it should be a relationship where we recognized Christ’s authority and how much he deserves our respect as our savior and God, we should also see Him in the personal and intimate way we would see someone we truly love and loves us.

As we finally reach the resurrection of Jesus, one of my favorite sentences in the book of Matthew is the last one in verse 20, And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Jesus never stops loving us or walking with us. When we do not feel His presence it is because of our lack of focus on Him and not the other way around. Let us always remember our relationship with Christ. When we turn our focus to Jesus, we find that He is already focused on us. He never leaves us or forsakes us because He loves us more than we can possibly ever know.

I love reading the Gospel of John. There is a certain intimacy between John and Jesus that you do not sense in the other Gospels. John is self-described as “The one who Jesus loved”. In John 13:23-25 we see the interaction between Peter, John, and Jesus, 23 One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. 24 Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, “Ask him which one he means.” 25 Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?” While Peter was not one to be timid about speaking his mind, he knew how close John was to Jesus (almost like the favorite child), so he asked John to ask the hard question of Jesus. The relationship that John has with Jesus is an example of what I want with Jesus; someone who is not afraid to lean on Jesus and know He has all the answers and loves me wholeheartedly regardless.