“I will be their God and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me.” (Jeremiah 31:33-34)

There is the ability to absorb information and store it away as a fact to be recalled later. In this way we know stuff.   It is quite a bit different to be known in relationships.  This type of knowing is what connects us as people, but it is also vulnerable.  This type of knowing asks us to reciprocate a level of emotional intimacy that can either invite us into a deeper connections or it can frighten us and we pull away.  This type of knowing asks us to honor one another as a way of mutual engagement.

In the text, the shift between knowing God as fact and being in a knowing relationship is present.  This shift eludes to the desire of God, that he doesn’t wish you simply to know him by facts but desires relationship with you.

This knowing reminds me of music that you feel in your bones.  We can know a song by name and even who wrote it, but when you know the song as a relationship the soul connects, the imagination is sparked, and you want to respond maybe with singing or dancing, foot tapping or snapping, hands clapping or waving.    This type of knowing is a moment of gratefulness for the way of knowing effects the being.

To learn the music and own the music as your own, allowing the presence of the melody to change you and move you, what a gift.  A gift God’s gives us: GOD  desiring to know us so intimately, that God will walk upon the earth with us,   inviting us us to join the song of his grace through Christ.   

Let us pray.  Dear Lord, let us be grateful for the knowing, for the music of your grace that affects us and provides for us a new covenant by which we are actively engaged with you through Christ. Amen

ADVENT CHALLENGE FOR THE DAY: Read Jeremiah 31:31-40. Take a picture of the idea, “Know” Then share on social media with #messiahlutheranpn #sign4life #AdventPhotos