Delighting in the God who Searches and Knows
Here is a phrase that has touched my heart
deeply this morning, “O LORD, you have searched me and known me!” (Psalm
139:1). Many people can relate to the heartache of people they love not taking
the time to get to know them, or thinking they know them well enough to reject
them. On the other hand, God Most High searches his children to know them.
When David tries to take this expression of
glorious light and break it down into the beautiful colors of its spectrum, he
describes this wonderful gift of God with these words:
·
“you know…”
·
“you discern…”
·
“you search…”
·
“you are acquainted
with…”
·
“you know it altogether…”
·
“you hem me in…”
·
“you lay your hand upon
me.”
The picture is of God the Father actively
knowing his children in every way we can imagine being known. We have someone
who wants to be our Father in intimate, loving relationship, even though he
knows us, discerns what we are like, searches into the deepest parts of our
being, is acquainted with everything about us, knows what we are doing
altogether completely, hems us in so that we cannot escape that we are the
center of his attention, and lays his hand upon us as the children he wants to
have for himself, the sheep he wants to be in his flock, the little lambs he
wants to gather in his arms and carry close to his heart (Isaiah 40:11).
It is no wonder that David’s response to the
way God knows his children is described like this, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain
it.”[1]When this is placed in contrast to all our life experiences where
people walk away from us with such little knowledge of who we are, and such
little effort to get to know us, and yet the God of heaven searches us out so
he can know us intimately and personally, we are left with these feelings David
tries to describe.
The fact is, to be known as God knows his
children is the most remarkable thought we could ever feel. Who but our Father
in heaven could give us a feeling of wonderful that is “too” wonderful for us
to contain. Only God could surround us with such thoughts of how wonderfully he
loves us that they rise up so high that we cannot reach the top of the pile.
Now, while our earthly life gives us this
exceptional joy of constantly knowing the Father whose knowing of us is beyond
words or explanations, this is the hope that is set before us, just waiting for
its appointed day: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.
Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known”
(I Corinthians 13:12).
God has brought his children to the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ so that we could have the eternal life that is knowing
God (John 3:16; 17:3). He leads us into this growing awareness of how much he
knows us, and how amazingly wonderful it is to think about how much he lovingly
knows us. And he sets before us this reality that is waiting for us in heaven,
that one day we will know what it feels like to “know fully.” And, this knowing
fully is by a very distinctive measure, the measure of, “even as I have been
fully known.”
This means that, in the way that we marvel
at how much God knows us, and constantly searches our hearts as a Father who
wants to personally know his children, he is leading us to know him now in the
growing conformity to Christ that is “from one degree of glory to another” (II
Corinthians 3:18), with that final experience of eternity where we will know
fully, even as we have been fully known.
So, we get to enjoy the wonder of the way
God knows us now, while looking forward to something far better waiting for us
in heaven. No wonder such thoughts are too wonderful for us. But close enough
to enjoy the little bits of wonder we can experience of God knowing us and
loving us right in the here and now.
© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
No comments:
Post a Comment