Any Final Requests?

I’m not really too sure as to why, but this morning as I felt led to read from John 17:17, I began to think about my wife cooking in the kitchen.  Once again, I felt like I got a winner in that department of our married life together!  Unlike some other members of her family, she has always enjoyed to cook, was never afraid to try new recipes and actually learned a lot from my Mom who was an excellent old world Italian cook!  Which reminds me of the time a few months after we were married when my Mom took me aside and commented about how thin I looked and then retorted: “Isn’t she feeding you enough?”

As an Italian Mama where the meal times around the table were the highlight of the day, she was serious, but I had a good laugh!  Anyway, back to Piper in the kitchen.  I always have enjoyed watching her cook.  She did things differently.  The way she sliced a tomato while holding it in her hand instead of placing it on the bread board, or how she stirred something in a pot on the stove, the artistic way she always arranged the food on a plate, and even the way she pulled the plastic wrap over a container of leftovers (or “new beginnings” as she like to call them!).  But most of all, I was always amazed at how she never seemed to get any spots of grease or other food residue on her, even when frying foods on the stove!

As for me… well, I’m a total opposite.  I learned early on that I have to wear an apron whenever I cook, or else I am always needing to wash a load of shirts!  Stain removers like “Shout” or “Zout” my personal favorite, have become a staple in our house, especially now that I do most of the cooking!  I don’t know how she does it!  Maybe it one of the gifts or talents that the good Lord gave to her!

In Jesus’ prayer in John 17:17, Jesus earnestly asks the Father to “Sanctify them (us) through Your truth.  Your Word is truth.” (MKJV)  One of my commentaries stated that “The Syriac version introduces this petition with the appellation ‘Abba Father’…”  That is to say this this was a very intimate and loving request from Jesus to His Father.  He knew that this would be a major factor to the day by day success of His followers while living in this world.

Maybe that is why I thought of my wife’s uncanny ability to stay stain free in the kitchen.  According to Jesus, God’s Word acts as a sort of apron that keeps the stains of the world and its ways off of us!  It allows us to move about freely, as the Lord directs us, within the standards of His Word, and not be sprayed or touched by the greasy overflow of its ways!  God’s Word, which is the truth of any matter under consideration, sets us apart from and acts as a shield between us and the adverse convictions and sentences of a life that follows the world’s secular dictates.  (See Romans 8:2)

You know… If that need was important enough for Jesus to ask His Father as one of His last requests just before He suffered and died for us on that cross at Calvary, then I would think that it is important for us to follow through on what He asked the Father in our behalf.  What do you think?  Have a good day.  Stay in tune to His Word and keep asking yourself… “What or Whom am I expecting today?”