
I was a fool.
Thanksgiving 1983. Dave and Phyllis Krogh had come to Dallas to celebrate with Steve and me. As the four of us sat at the table to enjoy the feast, we each shared things for which we were thankful. I can remember to this day contentedly saying, “I am thankful that life makes sense.” Twenty-four years old and I had a handle on life! How foolish!
I thought of this today when I read:
“If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.” 1 Cor. 8:2
The truth struck deep. Forty-one years later, I am well aware of how little I knew then and how little I know now. Forty-one years of a lot of life that doesn’t make sense. Forty-one years of coming to realize that having life make sense is not the most important thing about life. The passage in 1 Corinthians goes on:
“But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.”
At first I did not see the connection. It finally hit.
It is not important what you know. It is important that God knows you!
To be known by God is to live contentedly in a world that doesn't make sense because you know He knows. He knows everything that is happening, why it is happening, what will happen because it is happening. He knows because he is sovereignly and providentially orchestrating all things that happen.
To be known by God is to live free of “what if’s” and “why’s” because He knows you. He knows your weaknesses, limitations, failings. He knows your concerns. He sees you. He hears you. He knows you. God’s knowledge of us is wrapped up in his love for us. He cares for us. He is going to work all things together for our good.
?
There’s a lot of things in my life and in this world that do not make sense. But this I know, God knows me.
“What matters supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it—the fact that He knows me. I am graven on the palms of His hands. I am never out of His mind. All my knowledge of Him depends on His sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him because He first knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who loves me; and there is no moment when His eye is off me, or His attention distracted from me, and no moment, therefore, when his care falters.” ( J. I. Packer)