Know. Love.

What do you love?

I bet you can tell me a lot about it/him/her.  We know most about what we love.  That’s kind of the way it works.  We discover something new.  Our interest is sparked.  We dig deeper.  We learn more.  Knowledge feeds the fire of love, and love drives us to know something more deeply.

Love IS possible apart from knowledge, but it will lack all the depth and robustness of which love is capable.  In other words, loving a stranger may be done purely by choice/will, but how much better could that love be expressed given a greater knowledge of that person.  I can serve any stranger a meal, but serving someone their favorite meal takes friendship which requires knowledge.  And the more I know the better I can love.

Now, seeing as God is eternal and timeless, both His knowledge and love of you has been perfect from the beginning.  Your beginning.  Think about that.  God knew you before you, your parents, your grandparents, or your great-grandparents were ever born.  To take that a step further, replace “knew” in the previous sentence with “loved”.

Love’s provision.

Would you agree with me that we provide most for the things/people we love?  So, provision is another way to say love.  When I look at the provision of God in my life, do I make that connection?  Or do I chalk it up to chance, luck, self-sufficiency, or something else?

Am I aware (vitally aware) that this dinner before me is a direct result of God’s love for me?  When I dress in the morning do I realize that my entire wardrobe has been provided to me by One Who cares about me?

This sounds familiar

When Jesus stood on the mountainside as recorded in Matthew 6 and began to introduce people to the Kingdom of God and the love of His Father, he revealed this knowledge-love-provision picture.

He said, “Don’t be anxious about the daily things in life like clothes and food!  Your heavenly Father KNOWS that you need them all.  Seek him first who is seeking you most and all these things will be PROVIDED to you.” [Matt 6:31-33, author’s paraphrase]

This was a reintroduction of people to the God who knows.  When Israel had travelled to Egypt and found themselves enslaved under heavy burdens they did what all hurting people do.  They groaned.  They cried.

In Exodus 2:25 we see what a loving Father is doing when His children are hurting.  “God saw the people of Israel – and God KNEW.”

Enter Moses and a burning bush and deliverance.

It’s the same today.  When we hurt (through sins of our own or others), God sees.  God knows.  God loves.  God provides.

Enter Jesus and a cross and deliverance.

Don’t miss the love for you and knowledge of you that is behind everything you find yourself provided with today.