When you're not together

Jesus, help me not to drift away from my friends over the summer! Amen.

"Father," Jesus prayed, "I'm praying that my followers will be as close to you as I am, that we'll all be one. I wish that they will be in heaven with me and that they'll love each other as much as you love me."

Summer is almost here! As the school year ends, you might look around your class and wonder whether you'll see your school friends during the summer, or if you'll drift away from each other when you're not together every day.

If that's what you're thinking, you have something in common with Jesus! Before He went back to heaven, He started wondering whether His closest followers would stay as close to God once He wasn't with them every day as they were while He was on Earth.

In this week's Gospel (John 17:20-26), He prays to God the Father about it. He asks His Father to help the Apostles stay tight with each other and with God.

To Jesus, that meant sticking together and going out to teach about God. It also meant loving each other even when they couldn't be together, and trying to be good so they'd go to heaven someday and be with Jesus again.

A lot of that is stuff that kids can do over the summer. You may not see all your school friends, but you can think good thoughts about them and ask God to make their summer vacations awesome!

You can also call them to see what's new and make time to get together with some of them. Most of all, you can remind yourself that, when school starts, you'll all be together again.

People don't have to stop caring about one another just because they don't see each other all the time. Jesus believed that even when one person is in heaven and the rest are on Earth, you can still be friends!