Jesus of Nazareth upset the Jewish establishment of his day because he claimed that God was his Father, that he was in fact equal with God and even existed before Abraham. He referred to himself as ‘I AM’ being the name of God. This name was YHWH and translated means, “I am what I am”. God is the self-existent one, the source of all life. Jesus was in fact saying that he was that too; that he was actually one with God, in total unity!

Now the incredible thing is this, Jesus wants us to experience this union with God. As Christians our goal is to stay in a place of unity with Christ. Yet as we live our lives, there can be a struggle to maintain this one-on-one relationship with Jesus. I believe there is a key to this problem. There is the Hebrew word chashaq, it means to cling or figuratively love or delight in someone. It is used to express God’s love and affection, but the emphasis is the joining of himself to us. This word even has a root origin in the saddling of a horse, which of course is how you attach yourself to the animal. God is actually bonding or binding himself to us for the journey of a life together. It is the initiative of God to reach out to the world with his love; we didn’t love him first! This is the clincher which solves the problem of staying close to Jesús. His proactive love is the constant which keeps us joined together! It is the touch of the master’s hand upon us, keeping us ONE!

Ref. John 17:20-23 NIV.