To be loved is to be known
To be loved is to be known.
I know my daughter likes her steak medium rare. I know she prefers nights over mornings. I know my mama only needs 5 hours of sleep and she can still take on the world. I know Pooks does not care for anything coconut, especially coconut water. I know TC can reverse a 2025 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 pick up truck into a tight spot without a lick of sweat on her brow. I know my daddy don’t play when it comes to his devotion time with God, that’s why we don’t dare bother him when he is locked in. I know Kelly hosts great parties and won't just let anyone come over not because she doesn’t like you but because she doesn't like her floors dirty. I know Ashley, loves anything and everything truffle and can tell you what restaurant serves the best kind! My grandma loves a good bagel with cream cheese for breakfast. My grandpa is legally blind and still makes a mean chicken adobo. And I know my god-daughter better have her bottle warmed up and Mickey mouse on at 7am!
The small insignificant, personal, vulnerable moments are what makes us known and still loved.
Yet, it is still human of us not to know everything about one another. We hide some of ourselves because of fear, burden, tiredness, or busyness. I think it is true of everyone, including me. There are just some things in our lives that nobody knows. It is terrifying whether plantonically or romantically letting yourself be known. Even with people close to you. It requires you to not stop and reach for the closest door where all of the mess is stored. I think that’s why I don’t believe in love at first sight. This “fate” isn’t all that romantic. It takes choice out of the equation. I want a love that intentionally chooses me. Aware of my strengths and flaws. That’s romantic.
Still, we were created for intimacy. A means relating to one another on the deepest level. Honest. Authentic. Real. God created us to be in relationships that encompass the whole person. We long to be understood, accepted and loved at our very core. I think it's the essence of marriage itself. The hope in being bare before one another in spirit and love— Tim Keller says it liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us. But we still don’t always succeed in letting ourselves be known. It’s scary that all your relationships are contingent on whether people don’t know certain things about you? So you walk through life, hiding yourself from one relationship to the other, because if you do or say certain things, it might ruin the relationship. But isn’t it sweet to know that if that happened to everybody in your life, it wouldn’t happen to Jesus?
It is a relief to know God knows every single thing about us. There is no mask with Him. No secret kept. No darkness He has not seen. No feeling. No thought. No deed. No tick. No twitch—He absolutely knows… you. Your spouse's knowledge of you, your best friend's knowledge of you— nothing compares. It is great news! He who matters most, knows you most. And if you choose Him, He is able to keep you.
You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
Psalm 139: 1-6
Even I couldn't know allllllllllll of myself. It is too lofty for me to attain. We are complex and multilayered. Our greatest longing is to know ourselves. The only way to complete self-knowledge is to go to Jesus. In time and in small increments, He lays you bare and you can begin to gain a measure of self. In heaven we will be complete and pure but until then it is beautiful to know we are known by the one who can help us know ourselves.
It is true. Jesus knows you— the small insignificant, personal, vulnerable moments. Aware of all of your strengths and flaws. Your secrets, your darkness, your thoughts, your deeds, your ticks— He knows, and He loves you. It is the essence of being fully known and deeply loved.
May God open your eyes and grant you to fly to Jesus for the renouncing of all your self-reliance, and all your sin, and all your efforts to be everything to everybody, and claim Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and Treasure of your life, there would be one who forever knows everything about you and loves you infinitely. It is good news to be known to the bottom of your being. Amen. (J.Piper)
I am writing you love letters from Hilo.
I pray you read this with hope and love. With joy and expectation— knowing Jesus loves you but more importantly He needs you to grow up— in your word reading, praying, believing, hoping, looking for His return.
All my love,
G.
