Full Circle

 

 

“He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was first baptizing, and He was staying there” (John 10:40).

 

Well, old friend, here we are again. How long has it been? Three years? Almost three and a half?

 

How well I recall the look on your face as I approached you! Ha! What a surprise for you…or was it? Had you ever suspected that it might be Me? That I might be the One you were called to bear witness to?

 

The Voice from heaven, the Spirit descending like a dove, and your cry, “This is He!”

 

Did you realize what it all meant? I mean, did you realize that one day I would be back here, back here preparing to go to Jerusalem one more time, one more time for an appointment with yet another baptism, a baptism of death.

 

But it must be, must it not? Just as it was decreed that you would meet the executioner in Herod’s prison, so it has been decreed before the foundation of the world that I, the Lamb, would offer Myself for the world.

 

It seems like yesterday that you and I were here, by this river, in this river. I can still feel your hands on Me as you led me into the waters of baptism, as you raised Me up for the Father and Spirit to bear witness to Me, as you bore witness to Me.

 

Would you have leapt in your mother’s womb had you seen Herod’s prison with its executioner ahead of you?

 

Yes, I think you would have.

 

I won’t be here long, for My friend Lazarus is going to take a nap and I will go wake him up.

 

O John, O John, it is hard to wake people up, is it not?

 

Those who claim to see, do not see. Those who profess to hear, do not hear. Those who make a fuss about being alive, are dead.

 

Well, we have come full circle, have we not?

 

I will go to Bethany, then I will go to Jerusalem. There is a hill outside Jerusalem waiting for Me. There is a tree that has been growing, waiting to be transformed into a cross, waiting for Me. There are nails that have been forged that are waiting for Me.

 

Ah John, you waited for Me and I came. So I will come to, and not disappoint, the hill, the tree, the cross, the nails.

 

O John, but there is a joy beyond all of this that I see. The joy of My brothers and sisters returning to our Father, the joy of a glorious reunion of our Family – and so there is a fuller circle yet to come, a consummation in which God, who has ever been All, is seen as the All in All.

 

Well old friend, I’ve got to go now, it is time to head to Bethany.

 

I will see you soon.