The seventh and final novel in C. S. Lewis’s classic “Chronicles of Narnia” is The Last Battle. In this story, the children from our world who’d been magically whisked off to Narnia finally enter “Aslan’s Country”—the endlessly glorious world of the new creation (i.e., heaven!). And once there, the great lion Aslan, “the Lord of that place,” joyously urges everyone to come “further up and further in.” The children and the fantastic creatures who join them run through fields, up mountain slopes, even up waterfalls. All is vast and radiant. And everything is so much more “real” than the shadowlands of the world they’d left behind. Again and again Aslan, oozing with joy, summons his loved ones to come “further up and further in!”
Our recent expedition into John 17, with Jesus’ prayer to the Father for his church through the ages (i.e., for us!), sparked in me a “further up and further in” sensation. It felt like we’d entered a whole new world. Now I say “expedition” because scaling the heights way up in the high peaks of John 17 is simply breathtaking. My friends, be encouraged today as you ponder the way Jesus prays for his church:
These things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves (17:13). Jesus longs for us to know the joy he experiences—his fullness of delight as the Son of God—including foretastes of heaven now. And just think what’s coming when we see him face to face!
I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one (17:15). Can you think of any reason that the Son’s plea to the Father to protect us, ultimately, from Satan’s destructive schemes would fall on deaf ears or have no effect? I can’t either. So fear not.
Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one (17:11; see also vv 21-23). Jesus seeks a quality of oneness among his disciples (then and now) that’s akin to the unity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit within the Trinity. Take that in!
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am… (17:24). This is the yearning of God the Son—to bring his dear ones, his “friends” (15:13), into the sheer splendor of his exuberant, gracious, magnificent, joy-filled presence (cf. 14:1-3). So be encouraged.
