Seth Godin wrote an intriguing little post yesterday, on the theme, “Notice me.” It is certainly true that we will go to extraordinary lengths to be noticed by others, to gain attention.
But I think the true need is much deeper. We want to be known. And not merely known, but valued and loved even when that knowledge encompasses our dark and broken places.
There can be no better comfort than the words of Psalm 139. A few excerpts:
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.
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works…
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
The reality is, people only know us in part (and we only see ourselves with blurry vision!), and we often live with the secret fear that we won’t be accepted, if truly known. Yet our Maker knew us before we had a conscious thought. Nothing is hidden. No dark corner escapes His gaze.
We either run in terror from that level of knowledge (a futile exercise, to be sure), or we bow in worship and trembling. Because we ARE known. Now – will we get to know Him who knows us so well?
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Twitter: @swoodruff
