Debby was working her way through a stack of shopping catalogs her sister supplied. Can you hear me say “Thank you, sister”? I don’t think so. Fortunately (an antonym of the original Greek word meaning “who ate the fortune?”), Debby is more of a spectator than participant—a frequent browser and occasional buyer. Like a gentle fisherwoman, the fun is in the find. She can catch and release with ease.
But back to the catalogs…every few minutes she would say to me, “Look at this” or “Isn’t this cute?” or “I NEED this”. Most often, she was pointing out a purse or a wall decoration or a purse or a cat accessory or a purse…you get the idea. (Because she is the primary editor of these articles, be assured I will not be mentioning the “p” word again. I can already picture her slightly perturbed expression and cute pursed lips). Oops.
Anyway, as Debby was glancing at items in a particular catalog, I heard her softly say, “That’s good.” I sensed an “early Genesis” inflection in her voice, like she had come across a creation of power and beauty. She had. The plaque simply stated the words in bold you’ve already read, “Jesus knows me, this I love.” I remember my profoundly theological and deeply spiritual response—“Wow!”.
Jesus knows me. I love that He knows me! Inside and out, peaks and valleys, noble aspirations and shameful secrets—He knows me completely and loves me completely. Like a good shepherd knows his sheep, He knows me (John 10:14). Like another shepherd declares in Psalm 139, “O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.”
I haven’t always felt comforted by the knowledge of His knowledge. Knowing that He knew me made me squirm a bit. I could fool everyone else, but not Him. In the stillness of the night, as I thought about me in relationship to Him, it didn’t always feel good to realize He knew me. My discomfort, sometimes approaching despair, was because I didn’t know how good He is. I knew me, but I didn’t know Him.
Here’s the gospel truth: the only thing that could possibly exceed His knowledge of you is His love for you. Jesus loves me, this I know. Jesus knows me, this I love. It is not flippant, it is faithful to gratefully proclaim, “Good God, He knows me!”.
But back to the catalogs…Debby spied one other clever plaque that she may find appealing because of my previous “pursonal” comments. It read, “I love you more today than yesterday…because yesterday I was really ticked off at you.”
Dennis Lynn
Redwood Church
