Known Completely, Loved Completely
Who knows you the best?
A. Spouse
B. Best friend
C. Parents
D. Dog
E. None of the above
I suspect that at different stages in life your answer might be different. If you are a child who is living at home, you might say that, whether you liked it at the time or not, at least one of your parents probably knew you better than anyone else. After all, they had been around you the longest, had seen you in various stages of physical, psychological, mental, and spiritual development. They had seen you on your good days and your bad days. Yes, they may have been too busy with their own lives to know everything about you, but they likely had a pretty good read on you.
Somewhere in mid to later adolescence things shifted. Friends became extremely important. You spent more and more time with friends and less time with your parents. As you grew older, you may have opened up with one or a few friends and shared your goals, your fears, your dreams and so on. What you shared, along with the amount of time you logged, with a good friend may have led you to believe that your friend knew you best.
And then one day that one person caught your eye and grabbed your attention. You found yourself opening up more and more of your life with this person and eventually believed that they were the one for you. And you committed yourself to this one person in marriage.
Over time, you and your spouse could complete each other’s sentences, and if you stayed together long enough you might have even started dressing alike! (It happens.) Your significant other has seen and heard just about everything, so who else could know you better?
Well, maybe it’s the dog. Scruffy has been by your side since the day you brought that little puppy home from the animal shelter or the breeder. Scruffy doesn’t care what you look like, smell like, or feel like. He loves you and is, well… man’s best friend. Maybe the dog gets the vote on who knows you best. And fortunately, Scruffy can’t talk ,so your secrets are safe!
But I think the answer is E, none of the above. David gave us the answer in Psalm 139. Read this first paragraph and see if you agree:
“O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.”
Your doctor can order an MRI, but they cannot search your mind and heart and know all your thoughts. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can apparently get somewhere between 65% to 85% right in predicting our behavior when it comes to what we might choose to watch on TV or which car we might buy, but no matter how much data AI has on us, it cannot know us like the one who knew us before we were even born.
God knows everything about you. He knows the big things you think about and the fears that keep you up at night. He knows when and where you sit and when you stand up again. He is “acquainted with all my ways.” He knows that thought that is formed that you tried to keep in your head but somehow it turned into a word and snuck out of your mouth, and he still loves you. The creator of the universe is in front of you and behind you and surrounds your every move. He is more than we can think or imagine, and he wants you to simply acknowledge him and invite him in.
Father, we pause today to simply thank you for who you are and what you have done for us since our lives were formed. Today we acknowledge you as not only all knowing but the very lover of our being. We invite you to guide us today, that we might enjoy your presence and allow your love to fill us and then to flow from us into actions that reveal your love to those around us. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Your Time with God’s Word
Psalm 139:1-6 ESV
Photo by Pexels
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