Fully Known, So Fully Loved

I have a very sweet friend in my life who holds a special place in my heart, even though the length of our friendship has been rather short and the time we have spent in each other's company has been considerably shorter. Last summer, it worked out for us to meet up and have a good long visit while walking nature trails. 2 hours of blessed fellowship later, with aching feet, but with a refreshed and joyful heart, I hugged her goodbye. Not too long after that, I received a sweet letter from her which contained little cards, written in her beautiful cursive and surrounded with lovely artwork, on which was written some of the highlight points from things we had visited about during our visit. On one was written a scripture passage I had shared that had had special meaning to me recently, another had "Be Loved", another "The gospel changes everything". What a blessing this was to me! I carefully tucked them in my Bible as special markers. 

This past week I came across one of them again and it touched me in a new and special way. It read,

                                                          "Fully known                                                                                                                                                             Fully loved" 

God knows me fully and utterly completely. Nothing is hidden from His sight (Heb. 4:13), it is all open to Him. All my yuckiness and the filth my sin creates, the secret wickedness my heart harbors, the hidden desires of my heart that are contrary to the Spirit, it is all as an open glass before Him. And yet, I am fully, completely, and unutterably loved by Him! When He looks upon me, He sees not the filth of my sin, He turns not away from the stench of my wicked and deceitful heart (Jer. 17:9), but because of the sacrifice and subsequent victory of Jesus Christ, when He sees me, all He can see is the righteousness of my Savior that I am clothed in (1 Cor. 6:11)! Covered in Jesus' righteousness! Let that sink in! The unutterable love that provided that for you and me! Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, nothing!

                                       Because I am fully known, I am fully loved. 

Revel in that glory today. Live open before the Lord and delight in the knowledge that you are fully loved by Him. 

"Who shall sperate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword...Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through His that loved us, For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

Romans 8:35, 37-39