READ: PSALM 139; LUKE 12:6-7; ROMANS 5:6-11

Recently, a friend told me I walk really loudly. My other friends heartily agreed: they could always tell when it was me walking because my steps were so loud.

To be honest, I was caught off guard and a little embarrassed. I’d gone twenty-two years of my life without knowing about my noisy walk. Even though I thought I knew myself well, here was a fact I was totally oblivious to.

The whole thing got me thinking though. However much my friends know about me, God knows so much more. God knows the things I know about myself—like how much I enjoy chocolate or that I love dogs (even though I’m allergic). But God also knows the things about me that I don’t know. He even knows things about me that only He—as my Creator and Savior—knows. He knows my victories and my failures better than myself or anyone else (Psalm 19:12; Romans 8:26-27).

This knowing makes Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross all the more extraordinary. It wasn’t a sacrifice for a stranger. Jesus’s death and resurrection was for someone fully known. In His love, He died for me, even when I was still a sinner (Romans 5:8). Because I’ve put my trust in Him, I can rest in the truth that I am fully known and deeply loved. • Naomi Zylstra

• How well do you think your friends and family know you?

• When was the last time you learned something new about yourself? Did it change anything?

• How might remembering that God knows us completely help us rest in the truth that He loves us completely?

[Jesus said,] “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep.” John 10:14 (NIV)