To Be Known
To be known. Is that not one of our greatest desires? There is something intimately special about being known by a friend, a family member, a spouse. You feel safe and understood – like that person is for you and not against you. It’s with this same intimacy that God knows us.
I was at a wedding two weekends ago and talking with some friends about the different foods we like and dislike and we both responded correctly about the other’s preference – we know each other. I couldn’t help but smile because we only knew these things because we had chosen to spend hours and hours with each other over the years talking and paying attention. It might seem trivial that they knew tomatoes weren’t my thing or that I knew that salmon’s not theirs, but it’s remembering the little things that prove they’ll still be around for the big things.
Psalm 139 is a chapter filled with how God knows us down to the tiniest detail. I want to encourage you to let these words sink deep into your heart today. For if we actually believe they’re true, then we need never again fear not being loved.
“You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord” (Psalm 139:4). Do you have a friend like this? Someone who finishes your sentences for you. That always brings laughter and a sense of belonging, for someone to understand you so well that they are able to literally finish thoughts for you. God is like this for you.
“O Lord, You have examined my heart and know everything about me” (V. 1). Vulnerability is the watering to friendship. You can only be loved as much as you let someone else in. Think about it this way, if you have a blank canvas and you cover half of it tightly with a trash bag it doesn’t matter how much paint you throw on the canvas, the part that is covered won’t be touched. In the same way, the places in our hearts that we keep closed off to others are like the part of the canvas covered by the bag, they are unable to be affected and covered by the loving paint of others because we aren’t allowing others into that space.
Here's the beautiful thing, God sees those places in your heart and yet still, “How precious are Your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered . . . And when I wake up, You are still with me” (v.17-18). God knows the places you try to hide from your friends, and He doesn’t leave like you think He might – He stays with you because He loves you that much.
“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb” (v.13). You were made exactly as you were intended. We live in a world that is quick to point out perceived “imperfections,” but God was the One who formed you and He sees you as fearfully and wonderfully made.
God knows us more than we even know ourselves and He chooses to stay. He’s like the friend who finishes your sentence, He’s the shoulder to cry on as we share our deepest secrets, and He’s the friend we can count on when life begins to weigh us down or when we simply need a friendly walk by the ocean. It’s from this place that David concludes His Psalm with this, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends You, and lead me along the path of everlasting life” (v.23-24).
If these words are true, there is no safer person to be led by then by God Himself. He knows you more than your closest friend, all the good and all the bad, and yet He remains with you and desires the absolute best for you. Let’s practice going through our day today as if this were true. And if you’re feeling so bold, I want to encourage you to pray that prayer David finishes with. Ask God what places in your heart or ways that you’re thinking that need refining and follow Him as He leads you. God is God – He’s also the friend who knows you hate tomatoes the most.
