Reflection

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Never too old for divine healing

Imelda sent us the following testimony:

“For several years my father has been staying in an assisted care center.
In February he had a cold, but it seemed to get better. Still he lost his appetite. Before he liked any kind of food and he could enjoy anything.

End February we went to visit him. He looked grey and said that the nurses wanted to phone the doctor on call, but he thought it was not necessary. He rather would wait until Monday for his personal doctor to come. We were concerned.

"Son, I love you!"

Together with my husband Hugo and our family, we are going through the darkest valley of our
lifetime. Hugo and I fought together side by side. We all have our own stories. This is the story of a
mother whom, after years of battling and praying for her son to have a life worth living, could not
imagine ever taking leave from her son.

John, the disciple Jesus loves

For me and for many others, this is a stumbling block in the Bible. What to do about it? So Jesus seemed to love one of the disciples more than the others. Some even claim that Jesus had a homosexual relationship with John. But if you really want to understand the core of this verse, you just have to think twice and read carefully what it says. What's important is that it's not Jesus who makes this statement, but John. And nowhere in the Gospels do we read that Jesus says that He prefers one to all others.

So the saying and the conclusion come from John himself. Did he receive a special revelation? As far as I'm concerned, over the years it happened occasionally that someone said: "God is happy with you". It was a statement that I kept in mind because I was used to hearing sometimes "God loves you". But according to me there is a difference between loving someone and being happy with someone.

Recently an elderly lady came up to me after a meeting and said God told her to tell me He is happy with me. Usually I forget such a sentence quite quickly. But this time I began to think about it. I did not have a special revelation, but I did have the Word that clearly states that God loves us and is happy with us. So I decided to just accept that word.

Maybe the same happened to John. Maybe he was so proud that Jesus loved him that he felt the need to make it known, while the other disciples weren't so concerned about telling it. Nobody knows exactly how it went. It seems clear to me that Jesus did not love John more than the others. But one thing is for sure: John knew for sure that he was the disciple Jesus loved.

I just wanted to bring this to your attention and hope you will think about it. I wish you a lot of blessing with it.

Hugo, the disciple Jesus is happy with.