Woman, behold your son V

It seems to me that John was way over the top when he kept referring to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. Obviously, Jesus loves everybody, right? The first song children all over the world learn to sing is, "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so."

Well, maybe the Bible tells me so.

We do know that God so loved the world--the world, of course, includes all of us. And Jesus is God incarnate. But when Scripture speaks of those who Jesus specifically loves, it only mentions the rich young ruler; Mary, Martha and Lazarus; the one disciple whom we assume is John; and "His own who are in the world."

Who are "His own?" 

A loved one is always someone who can be counted upon. One of the first things that happened when I was falling in love with the woman who was to become my wife was we started counting upon each other. If she said she would meet me some place, she would never stand me up. If she made a request of me, I was overjoyed to comply.

When Jesus let John know that He wanted him to take care of His mama, we read, "from that very hour the disciple took her to his home."