"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

John 13:34 -35 ( NIV)

Prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Son and our Savior. This being the day of the Last Supper we remember how Your Son humbled himself to show his love and ask that we love one another, as He loves us, each and every day. Lord I ask that you use me as a quiet disciple to light the path for someone else. I ask this in the name of our loving Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Why do we acknowledge the Thursday before Easter as Maundy Thursday? Look at each word separately: Maundy comes from the Latin word mandatum meaning commandment and Thursday is the day of the week before Good Friday. Maundy Thursday, also known as Holy Thursday or The night of the Last Supper, is a Christian practice that is believed to have begun in the fourth century.

At the Last Supper Jesus declared; “A new command I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." He showed that in order to love one another you must be able to humble yourself. To do this He washed the disciples' feet and then had them do the same to each other.

Today we must continue to humble ourselves and serve one another. The humbleness Jesus has shown is the greatest we'll ever come across. However, that doesn't mean we shouldn't continue to follow His example and His will. If we can't love and serve each other, we really can't completely love and serve Him. Loving and serving Him is our invitation to His table after this life. We need to think of the Last Supper as Jesus teaching and giving us our invitation and the directions to His table in Heaven.

We also must share the love in our hearts with others. We must strive to look for the good in others even when our eyes may not see it. As a Sunday school teacher of preteens, I try to teach them to look past the outside and treat others, especially friends, as Christ would. You must be a friend if you want someone to be your friend. To be that friend, you must be willing to humble yourself just as Jesus humbled Himself to His disciples.

MARIE REYNOLDS