Declare

Declare

I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.

WE WERE IN THE MIDDLE of Sunday dinner with new friends when the question dropped with all the subtlety of a thunderclap.

“How come we only pray when other people come over?”

Conversations died down as adults and kids alike stopped midsentence to focus on the child who had spoken up. He blinked, owl-eyed, and repeated the question.

“Well?” he prodded, looking over at his parents, unaware of their discomfort. They grimaced and laughed nervously, embarrassment apparent. As his mother turned aside to whisper quietly to him, my husband and I politely moved on to a new topic of conversation.

Later, at home, I couldn’t help but reflect on the son’s question. Our family prays together regularly, but there’s any number of embarrassing questions my own children could ask. Which begs a larger conversation: as parents, how do we weave Jesus into the fabric of our lives—the morning routine, homework, dishes, snuggles, laughter, bedtime—so that our home carries his breath at every moment?

Jesus, speaking aloud to the Father, ended his prayer by saying that he had declared the Father’s name to his disciples so that the love of God would be in Jesus, and the love of Jesus would be in his disciples (see John 17:26). There’s a strength in declaring something to be true—the Cambridge Dictionary defines declare as “to announce something clearly, firmly, publicly, or officially.” When we declare the truth of God’s love and mercy to the world, it establishes the truth of our belief and reflects the love of the Father into the world. According to Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers, the Greek word used for declared is from the same root as the verb rendered “known” in John 17:25. It’s hard to love something or someone you don’t know.

Put that way, Jesus’ prayer to the Father becomes a prayer we can pray over our own lives: that we will continue to make his name known. And that the love with which he has loved us may be in us, and in our families.

Lord, help us to declare your name and make your love known. Amen.

-Kristin

One Good Step: Brainstorm a new way to demonstrate God’s love in your household.