A story on the theme of John 17.11-19

Theme: "Focus on the Father and the truth of His Word, and you will know a life that is filled with unity, joy, and purpose"

It seems to me that Jesus is praying that the Father would keep the disciples from veering off course in their spiritual lives even though He knows the journey ahead will be dangerous and difficult.  He prays they will be "protected" and as a benefit of this protection they will enjoy Unity, Joy, and Purpose.

Elly loved her big sister, Janey. Janey was older than Elly and she knew how to do all kinds of things that Elly didn’t yet know how to do. On the day that was going to be picture day at school, Janey helped Elly get dressed. Elly had already dressed herself (I mean that she picked out her own clothes like she did most days), but when Janey saw the clothes that Elly had picked out she knew that after the picture was taken, Elly would look at it and wonder why she had worn those clothes That had happened to Janey once so Janey helped Elly find some clothes that would look really good in the picture. 

Another day, Elly was in such a rush for school, she forgot her lunch. When she opened her backpack at lunch time, there was no lunch. Right away she started looking for Janey.  Janey was very kind and let Elly come over and sit with her and her friends and share Janey’s lunch.

Elly and Janey and a bunch of their friends walked home from school together most days. Elly had never really memorized her way home. She didn’t have to because Janey was always there. Elly didn’t know that their mom had asked Janey to always keep an eye on Elly on the walk home from school.

One day they were walking home and Janey was at the front of the bunch of kids and Elly was towards the back. Elly sometimes kind of wandered home because she was always looking around -- up at the trees, down at the ground, off to the side, and down the streets they crossed. That day, looking down, she saw a baby bird that had fallen out of its nest. She knew you shouldn’t pick it up or the momma bird wouldn’t want the chick any more. So she tipped toed towards it very slowly and very quietly. She didn’t want to scare it and as she walked she was trying figure out how she’d put it back in its nest. By the time she had gotten close to it, she had decided what she thought would work. She had a piece of cardboard in her backpack. If she curled  it a little to make a kind of shovel. Maybe she could pick it up with the cardboard and lift it back up to its nest. 

She turned back to ask a friend to help and discovered that there was no one around. It was quiet. Her sister and her friends were gone. Then she got scared and felt like that little chick. What would she do? How would she get home? She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen this part of the neighborhood before. Where was her sister?

Her sister, Janey, was looking for her. She had discovered that Elly wasn’t in the group. She had disappeared. Where had she gone? Janey could hear in her head, her mother asking her to watch out for Elly and protect her and she hadn’t done it. She had let Elly get lost.

She did what made the most sense. She headed back the way they’d come. She called out Elly’s name and ran as fast as she could. Can you imagine how happy Janey was when she heard Elly’s voice calling out from not too far away? Can you imagine how happy Elly was when she saw Janey running toward her? Can you imagine how proud their mom was when they got home and told her the story about how Janey watched out for Elly and found her when she got lost?