{"id":310,"date":"2010-07-27T11:13:33","date_gmt":"2010-07-27T11:13:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/07\/god-is-the-one-who-made-you-and-loves-you.html"},"modified":"2010-07-27T11:13:33","modified_gmt":"2010-07-27T11:13:33","slug":"god-is-the-one-who-made-you-and-loves-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/07\/god-is-the-one-who-made-you-and-loves-you.html","title":{"rendered":"God is the One Who Made You and Loves You"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

What if someone knew everything about you? Really,
\neverything. All the good and all the bad. What if someone knew the mean words
\nyou thought but didn’t say this morning? Or the kind deed you were going to do
\nbut didn’t because you were tired, or embarrassed, or because you forgot? What
\nif someone counted the number of times you looked in a mirror in a day, and
\nwhat if they knew how you thought about yourself–the times you approved of your
\nappearance, the times you wrinkled your nose at yourself? What if someone knew
\nthe silly things that make you scared? <\/p>\n

And what if someone knew when you went out of your way to
\ntake care of someone else? What if someone knew the intimacies of your
\nbodies–every scar, every freckle, every crease and wrinkle? What if someone
\nknew your dreams, your hopes, your best thoughts?<\/p>\n

How would you feel? <\/p>\n

I used to read Psalm 139<\/a> and I would get swept away by the
\nlanguage and the imagery, with lines like:<\/p>\n

“O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. <\/i><\/p>\n

You know when
\nI sit and when I rise; <\/i><\/p>\n

you perceive my thoughts from afar…<\/i>” (verses 1-2)<\/p>\n

or <\/p>\n

“If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far
\nside of the sea, <\/i><\/p>\n

even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold
\nme fast”<\/i> (v 9-10)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What comfort, I thought, that God knows me and is with me.<\/p>\n

But when I look at the Psalm a little more closely, I see
\nthat the writer really means it. He’s not talking about a far-away God who acts
\na little like a distant grandparent, eager to overlook our faults and give us
\ncandy when we come to visit. This is a God who really knows us. Those words can
\nbe words of comfort–You know everything
\nabout me<\/i>. Or they could be words that inspire fear–You know everything about me<\/i>. <\/p>\n

The Psalm is attributed to King David, and the history
\nwritten in other books of the Bible tell us all about David as a flawed human
\nbeing. David cursed. He murdered. He committed adultery. He was a bad father.
\nAnd he loved his God. <\/p>\n

It’s all here in Psalm 139. He talks about running away from
\nGod (v. 7-12). He talks about hating other people (v. 21-22). He admits to
\nanxious thoughts and offensive ways (v. 23-24). <\/p>\n

And yet. And yet. In the midst of this messy human life,
\ncomes the assurance of God’s favor: <\/p>\n

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my
\nmother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made…”
\n(verse 14). <\/p>\n

There is someone who knows it all–the messiness and the
\nbeauty, the hatred and the loves, the running away and the turning back, the
\nfailures and the successes, the pain and the joy. God knows it all. And in the
\nmidst of it all, God says, “I made you. You are mine. You are beautiful. And I
\nlove you.” <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What if someone knew everything about you? Really, everything. All the good and all the bad. What if someone knew the mean words you thought but didn’t say this morning? Or the kind deed you were going to do but didn’t because you were tired, or embarrassed, or because you forgot? What if someone counted…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith"],"yoast_head":"\nGod is the One Who Made You and Loves You - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/07\/god-is-the-one-who-made-you-and-loves-you.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"God is the One Who Made You and Loves You - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What if someone knew everything about you? Really, everything. All the good and all the bad. What if someone knew the mean words you thought but didn’t say this morning? Or the kind deed you were going to do but didn’t because you were tired, or embarrassed, or because you forgot? What if someone counted…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/07\/god-is-the-one-who-made-you-and-loves-you.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-07-27T11:13:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"God is the One Who Made You and Loves You - Thin Places","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/07\/god-is-the-one-who-made-you-and-loves-you.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"God is the One Who Made You and Loves You - Thin Places","og_description":"What if someone knew everything about you? 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Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}