The Goodness of God that Knows Us
One day, face to face.
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known (1 Corinthians 13:12).
There's a line in Disney's animated Aladdin that makes me think about the indwelling of the Spirit in those who call Jesus, "Lord." In describing his limitations the genie says, "PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER; itty bitty living space." While a fictional genie is constrained to obedience in granting three wishes (with "a few provisos, a couple of quid pro quo"), the Lord God Almighty has no such limitations. He not only has PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER, but he CREATED the cosmos. The comparison for me is not the power of God, but that He puts that power into those whom He loves — an "itty bitty living space" wracked with limitations of all kinds: physical, emotional, and mental.
The "itty bitty living space" of the human creature contains the goodness of God as a permanent resident. The Lord holds back His mighty power within us because we are limited, but one day, we will fully experience the indwelling goodness of God. We will know Him in the same way that He knows us.
Living inside a magic lamp ensures one knows every part of it. There are no corners or partitions. Any fictional genie living in an imaginary lamp knows the space from every angle. There are no places to hide there.
Similarly, there is no place to hide from an omnipotent Holy Spirit dwelling within us. We may think we can act independently from God, but in reality, he who numbers the very hairs on our heads also knows our thoughts and motives (Matthew 10; Luke 12). The truth is reiterated throughout Scripture. God knew Moses by name (Exodus 33:17). Jeremiah wrote that God knew him, saw him, and tested him (Jeremiah 12:3). Nahum noted that the Lord "knows who take refuge in Him" (Nahum 1:7). When the prophet Samuel went to Jesse to find God's chosen king for Israel, he grew flustered because all of Jesse's grown sons looked to be strong and handsome. The Lord told Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). To the first century Christians John wrote,
"No one has ever seen God; if we love one another God abides in us and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit" (1 John 4:12-13).
When David wrote Psalm 139, he contemplated the goodness of God in how He knows us. There is no place to run from the Father (v 7-10), the dark is "bright as day," (v 11-12) and He even knows the words we speak before we think of them (v 4). God's knowing of us goes back to the womb (v 13-16). David ended the Psalm recognizing the impossibility of hiding sin from God. He prayed that his "grievous way" (v 23) might be revealed to him so that he could repent of it and follow God into the "way everlasting" (v 24). In all things we are fully and completely known by the Creator.
In that knowing, God shows His goodness and mercy by knowing us in ways we cannot begin to fathom. We cannot understand the height, breadth, and depth of that kind of knowing —yet. We get hints of that delight: a newborn baby, a glorious sunset, the smell of rain, the crush of fall leaves for fresh snow. Moments of recognition make us long to know the Father better. C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, " “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world” (Lewis 121). Later, Lewis calls that other world the "true country." Glimpses are good, but they cannot satisfy a desire to know as we are known (1 Corinthians 13:12). Paul wrote that we know God in an enigmatic way, as if in a reflection, not yet seeing His full reality. There are hints of seeing what is there, but the full image is hidden from us. The knowing Paul references is a thorough one, wherein we instantly recognize the Father in all His goodness as we see Him, literally, πρόσωπον πρὸς πρόσωπον (prosōpon pros prosōpon): face to face.
God will reveal Himself to us ἐπιγνώσομαι (epiginōskō), knowing well and fully perceiving. Our finite minds cannot wrap around knowing infinity, which is why it can be so hard to see past our circumstances into eternity. But God already knows everything: our hardships, our desires, and our longing to be at home in the "true country" that Lewis described. A genie returns to the confines of his lamp, but we who are inhabited by an infinite and almighty God have a greater hope. We will one day have our imaginations enlarged and our vision expanded so that we dwell more in His goodness. We will see Jesus as He is because we will be like Him (1 John 3:2), transformed and fully alive in His goodness. Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand" (John 10:27-28).
We live in the now and the not yet. We are filled with the goodness of God to the extent that our humanity can contain it, but there is so much more ahead for those who long to know God the way we are known by Him. Each day, in every circumstance, we learn to love Him better. In tumultuous times, we lean on Him. In joyful times, we sing praises. When we meditate on the Word, we learn to see glimpses of His goodness, and in that way we begin to know Him. Still ahead is the promise of knowing fully the One who calls us by name.
This prompt came from a conversation with Pastor John E. Dobbs. I've begun asking pastors to tell me something about the goodness of God--putting them on the spot so they can't prepare a "right" answer. Look for these in the coming weeks!
βλέπομεν γὰρ ἄρτι δι᾽ ἐσόπτρου ἐν αἰνίγματι τότε δὲ πρόσωπον πρὸς πρόσωπον· ἄρτι γινώσκω ἐκ μέρους τότε δὲ ἐπιγνώσομαι καθὼς καὶ ἐπεγνώσθην.
1 Corinthians 13:12
This prompt came from a conversation with Pastor
of Hope Remains. I've begun asking pastors to tell me something about the goodness of God--putting them on the spot so they can't prepare a "right" answer. Look for these in the coming weeks!βλέπομεν γὰρ ἄρτι δι᾽ ἐσόπτρου ἐν αἰνίγματι τότε δὲ πρόσωπον πρὸς πρόσωπον· ἄρτι γινώσκω ἐκ μέρους τότε δὲ ἐπιγνώσομαι καθὼς καὶ ἐπεγνώσθην.
1 Corinthians 13:12
Resources:
The ESV Bible. English Standard Version, Crossway, 2001. (All Scripture references, unless otherwise noted, are ESV.)
Blue Letter Bible. Sowing Circle, 1996–2024, www.blueletterbible.org.
Clements, Ron, and John Musker, directors. Aladdin. Walt Disney Pictures, 1992.
Lewis, C. S. Mere Christianity. 1952. Touchstone, 1996.
