Who Are You?

How many people do you "know"?

I mean... how many people do you really know?

As I began to reflect on this question, I realized just how few people I really, truly knew. Sure, I have many wonderful, amazing friends. I have a family who cares deeply for me. And many of the people whom I love the most I have known for quite a great length of time. But I had to ask myself: Do I really know them?

As I sit here in my room, my roommate on her bed, the other one fast asleep, I can't help but think how little I know of them. Don't get me wrong, our friendships are deep, but I cannot say that I know what thoughts run through their mind daily, or what struggles they are affected by right now. For some of my friends, I barely know their hopes and dreams for the future, much less every thought that crosses their mind as each new day passes.

I was utterly struck by my lack of depth and knowledge of the very beings who are around me most.

Soon, I began to reflect on my relationship with my family. The differences and the similarities in how we think are striking. And while my parents and I have a wonderful relationship, I am not in their being, experiencing their day-to-day feelings.

The best I can do is try to empathize from afar, using only my experiences and observances to guide my interactions with them.

Pretty soon, I began to think about myself. How much do I know of me? And while I ought to know an awfully lot about myself, for I am, after all, me, I was struck with the realization that not even I knew myself best!

It was after this series of reflections that I began to realize that there is one person in the whole universe who knows me, who knows the deepest thoughts of my friends, and the deepest feelings of my parents. That being knows the most about every single person on the face of this earth:

He is God.

He alone knows the depth of my thinking, the longings of my heart, and the plans for my future. He alone knows my motives for my actions. He alone knows me better than I know myself.

But God doesn't just know me, or my friends, or my family. He knows and interacts with over 6,966,774,759 people...all the people presently on earth...on a day-to-day basis! And knows them better than they know themselves.

What a mighty and powerful God we worship! He seeks to know me better and wants a relationship with me! This led me to conclude, that while it was certainly a valuable pursuit to seek understanding of those around me. And that it was important to know who I am. My identity, who I truly am, can only be found in Christ.

A relationship with Christ is a two-way street. The fact that He knows me so well, is not to be taken for granted. But I must seek His face even more eagerly than He desires to see mine. For He molded and shaped me before I was born. He knows my every shape, contour, and passion. But do I know His?

Children of God, how may we claim to have our identity in Christ if we do not truly know Him? We can only find our own identity if we know the One whom our own identity is rooted in!