July 23, 2022 – Words of Wisdom, Brenda Bradford Ottinger (Writer for Proverbs 31 Ministries)

“When you feel unknown by the world around you, take heart — you are fully known by the Lord.” – Brenda Bradford Ottinger

“Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part, but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see only a reflection, as in a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-13

Fully Known

The beauty and the frustration of living within the family unit is that within this orbit most of us are fully known. There is little that is hidden from the family – though it appears that is becoming less and less a reality. But when I was a kid, I was fully known not only within my family, but within my school and even within my community. There was no place to hide.

Today we live in a different world. Not only are fewer people known within their communities, they appear to be hidden within their families. The online world allows too many people to escape into a world they can create for themselves – a world that is completely foreign to the world in which we live. We can create a dystopian world to live in. We can create a fantasy world to live in. But no one in those worlds truly know us.

G-d knows us fully because we are children of G-d. No matter the trouble we encounter, no matter the ways society dismisses us, G-d welcomes us and loves us. Remember that every day.

Let us pray,

Lord Christ, you know us fully – you love us unconditionally. Help me to live into that reality today and every day. Amen.

Pastor Dave