Scripture Scribbles: May 10, 2026
the Gospel
John 14:15-21
Jesus said to his disciples:
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always,
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept,
because it neither sees nor knows him.
But you know him, because he remains with you,
and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
In a little while the world will no longer see me,
but you will see me, because I live and you will live.
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father
and you are in me and I in you.
Whoever has my commandments and observes them
is the one who loves me.
And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”
the scribble
Whoever has my commandments and observes them
is the one who loves me.
And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”
My word of the year is “like a child.” The Lord has been working a multilayered movement in my heart to teach me humility, trust and surrender.
Those lessons have been painful, a deep dark winter in my heart. But as spring bursts open in vibrant color all around me here in New England, I am beginning to see an inner spring, too.
Today’s Gospel deeply resonates with so much of what he has walked me through this winter. In the darkest times, it has been simple obedience (“Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me.”) that has kept me anchored to who I know to be True.
But as spring has come, I have begun to perceive an invitation to childlike humility, to a process of humiliation.
Humiliation (even the word itself) has always sounded awful to me – the thing to be avoided at all costs. Humiliated means exposed, seen in all one’s failures and weaknesses.
But during this season, as I have experienced deep humiliations, I have actually tasted, for the first time, their exquisite sweetness. From my prayer journal, “I am beginning to desire the sweetness of humility. It doesn’t sting, bristle and pinch like pride. It celebrates and delights and opens to receive. It is soft and tender…I want to live the soft, joyful freedom of absolute humility. The openness. The slowness…because humility does not rush ahead, humility happily waits and follows and trusts completely.”
I am praying the Litany of Humility often and specifically asking for the grace to see and embrace invitations to humiliation when they come. It still feels like pruning under sharp shears. But the Gardener of my soul has shown me that what he is cultivating is well worth these discomforts.
I am learning that humility is what allows God’s love to penetrate the deepest parts of my heart. It is exactly in those places where pride says, “control and cover,” that his love is fully revealed.
And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”
Today’s devotion was written by Lucia Parker
