God has picked me out to be His own and to enjoy all the benefits of liberation from Satan’s domination and all the blessings of the peace of His presence.
Like Jeremiah, there are times when we prefer to be anonymous, to disappear among the faces in the crowd, to avoid having someone stare at us and head in our direction with conversation quivering on their lips. There are groups of people in which I wish to be noticed and there are times when I hope nobody, or at least one certain somebody, does not notice me at all. Recognition has its benefits, but anonymity always seems safe.
Through Jeremiah, the Lord reminds us He has had us in mind since before we were born, since before the world came into being. He not only knows who we are and where we are, He knows how much hair we have on our head... and how fast they are thinning. Knowing God as the one who has provided for all our needs is assuring. Knowing God as the one who has loved us in Jesus Christ provides comfort beyond belief.
Sometimes we wish God would not recognize us as we wander from His paths and fall in with evil company that we all too readily enjoy because they play the game differently than God wants it played. Sometimes we sense our behavior has kept our Father up all night, that our actions have taken us away and quite a way from His house and family. We may come to our senses, but we are still reluctant to abandon our prodigality. We are hesitant to return to the place He has already prepared for us in this life. Knowing He has His eye on us, however, we can never be comfortable in prodigality again. Knowing He knows actually frees us to confess to Him that we have defied Him and doubted His Word once again as we flee to the only refuge we have in the loneliness of the company of sinners.
Sometimes we wish God would not have an eye on us because, like Jeremiah, we do not want to take on an assignment He has for us. We know ourselves too well not to be intimidated by the challenges He places before us. We hesitate to venture into His world with our meager gifts and serve His people in their horrible messes and their great need. Jeremiah is not the only one of God’s servants over the years who did not feel they were up to the tasks He has planned for them to carry out. Assessing the evils around us, we are not mistaken in shying away from taking them on. But God nibbles at the evils in this world. He alleviates suffering one little bit at a time and defeats sinful lusts one by one. He accomplishes His little victories in our lives when we relax in His presence and concentrate on His commission to bring His love and care into the world. For the world He has set before us is a world near and far, a world of single parents and orphans, of those persecuted by hostile governments and hostile neighbors and hostile fellow workers, the world of those on the move from one home in search of another. Knowing He knows us provides the sense of security we need to stop looking inward with worry and fear. Knowing He knows our world and us frees us to be the creatures He created to be helpers of one another.
Knowing He knows us provides the sense of security we need to stop looking inward with worry and fear.To know He knows our names and has written them in the book of life from before the foundations of world means, despite all appearances, our lives are secure. The Lord has a destiny in mind for us. Knowing He has known us from the womb on as well, like Jeremiah, brings boundless joy and relaxation from the tensions of guilt, shame, or fear. To know He has known our sins and erased them with the blood of our Deliverer sets loose a sense of peace and assurance which frees us from lesser worries of all kinds. For He delights in knowing us as His children and seeing what, through the power of His Holy Spirit, we think of Him as our loving God and merciful Rescuer and Restorer.
The Creator knows our future and has it securely in His hand. He says, “I know the plans I have for you,” and is planning a life in which He cares for me. The future He has planned for me is a future with hope, not hope for an unbroken series of pleasant and enjoyable days without any upsets, but days unbroken by having to take the threats of evil so seriously that they dominate our thinking and drive us to doubt and despair. The future may indeed be bumpy, but His hope guarantees the good ending promised in Romans 8:28. He has written Himself into the center of our future and draws us inexorably back to Himself when we stray. The Holy Spirit created a draft, a ruach, a pneuma, a breeze which moves along and sucks us into its stream, over the bumps, in His direction.
As if on the wings of a dove, He floats into our moments of crisis with the assurance that He is returning us home to our heavenly Father. For Father, Son, and Holy Spirit know us and do not forget, for God’s faithfulness and reliability never ends. As Paul wrote to Timothy, God has given us the gift of baptismal death so we may live with Him. If we stick with Him, Paul says, He will stick with us. If we deny Him, the apostle announces, He will turn His back on us. But then comes the turn to the divine way of doing things: “If we are faithless, He remains faithful,” because that is simply His nature. This is just the way He is (2 Timothy 2:11-13). As Moses learned from the bush, “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14). He is the One whose name is beyond naming, the One whom we know as Jesus of Nazareth, the Jewish rabbi, who came to this earth to acquaint all the children of God with their heavenly Father.
What a relief! He knows me! He has picked me out to be His own and to enjoy all the benefits of liberation from Satan’s domination and all the blessings of the peace of His presence. I now get to serve Him, whom I love and trust. That makes me and the world right, for I am innocent in His sight, a beloved member of the family. My ID badge reads: “One known by the Lord.”
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