Jesus Sees Me and He Knows Me

Jesus Sees Me and He Knows Me

I LOVE Psalm 139.  When I was 15, I became Christian.  A lovely senior couple sponsored a trip to summer camp for me at Spring Hill, in mid-Michigan.  The camp grounds are beautiful, and one afternoon I took my Bible and sat in the woods to meet with God.  I read Psalm 139, and this was the first time I heard God speak to me through scripture.  It was SO intimate, so beautiful - so personal!    I couldn't believe how the Psalmist described all the ways that God knows me!  

Verses 1-3 go like this:  "O Lord, You have searched me and known me.  You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off.  You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways."  Verse 16 adds "Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.  And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them."

Here's some of my parade of thoughts reading through those:  Lord, You spend time searching me - amazing!  You KNOW me . . . and I don't even know myself!  You know simple things like when I sit, rise, walk and lay down, and you know intricate things, like my ways - my habits, strengths, weaknesses, giftings, skills and talents.  Before You even had formed me in my mom's womb, Your eyes saw my substance - miraculous!  And before I'd lived a single day, ALL my days were written in Your book - You are ready for any and everything that happens in my life - You've already seen it all as if it has happened!  I left that wooded hillside just as giddy as could be!  Before this, I had NO IDEA how interested God was in me, how much time He spent thinking about me, and how much He knew about me. 

Almost 40 years have passed since then - filled with growth as well as lost ground, success and failure, righteous decisions as well as sin, so much grace it cannot be quantified, times of deep repentance met with tons of forgiveness, and a process of learning His word and finding increasing freedom and maturity in following Him.  

So it goes without saying that one of my favorite parts of reading the gospels is seeing how Jesus displayed this truth - how well He knew the people He interacted with, and how surprised they were at His intimate knowledge!  I think of Phillip bringing Nathanael to meet Jesus, and Jesus telling Nathanael that He saw him sitting under a fig tree just before Phillip came to him.  Freaked Nathanael right out!  (John 1:47,48)  Also convinced Nathanael that He was the Messiah, and he immediately followed Him!  

I love when Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well, and tells her how many husbands she has had, and that she is presently living with a man she's not married to.  (It is worth noting that He doesn't shame her in any way - in fact, I sense that He has an opinion about the now-absent husbands, too, as well as the man who hasn't chosen to legitimize her through marriage . . . but I digress.)  She also is convinced that He is the Messiah, telling all in her village "He told me all that I ever did!", and bringing them to meet Him.  (John 4:39)   

When I see Jesus through the words of the gospels, I notice some other things about His manner, too.  Picture ANY conversation from the gospels - where do you imagine Jesus' eyes to be focused?  They are absolutely ALWAYS looking into the eyes of whomever He is speaking to, aren't they?  Can you even imagine it any other way?  Whether teaching, healing, encouraging or rebuking, He looks each man and woman fully in their face, His eyes on their eyes.  He validates their worth, and relays His calm, confident authority.  He knows them.  No matter if they are ashamed, lying, conniving, conspiring, searching, doubting, aching, grieving, laughing or crying, He is fully engaged with them, answering them from His full knowledge of who they are, what drives them, what their motives and intentions are, as well as their needs and hopes.  

He knows you this well too - and He calls you to come boldly to Him, holding nothing back.  There is absolute freedom in talking with someone who already knows everything about you and STILL wants you to come!  He LOVES you!  He doesn't approve of everything you and I believe, think and do, but that doesn't prevent Him from loving each of us completely!  He wants to walk you into freedom, into the life that He has planned for you.  And just as Phillip and the Samaritan woman did, once you know that He is who He says He is, Jesus wants you to tell others so that they also may find their freedom in Him.  THIS is Jesus' idea of a Christmas gift worth giving!!! 

(The link to the kid's post is:  http://elizabethtreger1.blogspot.com/2014/12/jesus-sees-me-and-he-knows-me-jesus.html) 

*The painting pictured above is by the artist Akiane.