The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you (John 14:26 MSG).

I’ll never forget the day my mom dropped me off for my first year of college, and I know she hasn’t forgotten it either! That day marked the beginning of a new chapter in each of our lives, and it was a transition that we had been working toward together since the day I was born. Our parents are there to help us as we grow from infants to toddlers to big kids to teenagers to young adults, and they help us learn to be incrementally independent along the way. 

The year before I went to college was the final push, and my mom forced that final increment of independence on me whether I wanted to receive it or not! I made all my own doctor’s appointments, and I called the insurance company to set up how to pay for my own car insurance. I pumped and paid for my own gas, I learned how to read a map (ah, pre-GPS days!), and I learned how to take care of my own taxes. I really hated it at the time, but Mom was equipping me with skills she knew I’d need for the transition to life without her physically being with me 24/7.

The disciples had three years with Jesus, not eighteen. Jesus used those three years to teach his friends and encourage them, because he knew there would be a time in the not-so-distant-future where they would be without his physical presence. Jesus didn’t plan to leave the disciples feeling orphaned or abandoned, just as my mom didn’t abandon me that first day at college. She told me all the time growing up, and she still reminds me of this today: “You can call me anytime, day or night, and I’ll be there. I’m always here if you need me!” 

Jesus never truly left them: the Holy Spirit arrived in His place, and His purpose was and is to “remind you of all the things I have told you.” (v26) Mom did her job by helping me become independent of her, but Jesus trains us into lives of deepening dependence upon Him/the Spirit. That doesn’t erase the skills needed to function independently in society, nor is it a crutch. It’s a support rather than a hindrance! Jesus left a way for the disciples–and us! --to “call” Him in the Holy Spirit, the Helper, the Friend. 

The Holy Spirit often seems (and is!) mysterious, but have you ever thought of Him as “Friend?” What power resides in the gift of such a Friend with us at all times! Ask Him to “remind you of all the things He has told you,” today.