"Love Manifested"

 "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world." (John 17:24 KJV)

  "For God, who said, "Let there be light in the darkness," has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Corinthians 4:6 NLT)

 If you have ever wondered why God has specified that we come by our own free will, and why He made us to have free will, to make our own choice; then you might have thought about what it means to love Him, because He loved us first. We are meant to respond by loving Him, because we know how much He loves us! 

 When we see things through the power of love, it makes perfect sense that free will was the only way to allow us to love, even remotely, as He loves us! This is probably the closest thing I can think of to compare with what Jesus is asking of the Father. The word, "will," that Jesus uses to express His desire, it is the same as if to say, "to love," as in, "I would love to see this happen." 

 We must understand where Jesus was in this moment, as He just finished sweating blood, pleading for the Father to have some other way; then coming to the understanding, that there was no other way, and that this was His way to manifest the love of the Father. As He had told 'Nic at Night', "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son!" 

 I am sure that there's other ways to look at this, but from the perspective of love, this is about laying down our life, as Christ was preparing to do, that love might be manifested though Him. If you want to get really technical, you cannot know what it looks like, unless you have been there yourself...

"We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. That makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies." (2 Corinthians 4:7-10 NLT)