Becoming One

After 41 years of marriage, I know what my husband is thinking most of the time and we finish each other’s sentences. The Bible says of married people that ‘the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one’ (Matthew 19:5–6). That isn’t an immediate oneness. Becoming one with a spouse takes shared interests and experiences—time spent talking and doing things together.

Something similar happens with long-time friends. We often know, without being told, what our close friends are thinking and feeling because of shared experiences, interests and conversations. We experience a unity with our closest friends.

Jesus called his disciples friends. Later he prayed for them, ‘that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me’ (John 17:22–23). Jesus asked God to make us one with him, just as he and the Father are one. But this oneness takes time, conversation and shared experiences with God. We can begin now to talk to Jesus and listen, as good friends do.

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for the amazing promise that we can be one with you, one with the Father, and one with each other. Amen