If I Could Tell You Anything...

If I could tell you anything, and if you would believe it, it would be something you already know.

For most of us, that's all we're ever told. All we ever need know. Things we have heard before. Things we really knew but needed reminded of.

For us over-priviledged, over-informed Americans, as I  am assuming my (few if existent) readers are, there is little that we haven't heard at some point.

But hearing and knowing something is not the same as knowing.

So if I could tell you anything, and if you would believe it, it would be simple. It would be a Sunday School answer that you, growing up in a home where everyone had their own personal Bible (or could have, even if you had to get a Gideon one from the fair) and there were six churches within a few minutes' driving distance (unless it took you fifteen minutes to get anywhere anyway), have always known.

I would tell you one simple, three-word sentence.

Jesus loves you.

You, the well-taught Sunday school child, roll it off your tongue, roll your eyes quickly over it, hum it under your breath. 

But that is what I want to tell you, what I want you to know.

Jesus loves you. 

Imagine if you really believed that. If you really believed that the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect God of the universe knows you specifically, loves you specifically, and will never leave you, you, first-middle-last name, with brown/black/blonde/red/gray/white/dyed hair. You with that hidden fear you've never told anyone, you with the tired sorrow you can't or don't explain, you with sin so much more deeply implanted than your closest companion knows.

Imagine if you really believed that God knew you completely and loved you the same way.

Maybe you think you do.

But then why do you still fear? Why do you doubt yourself - that is, doubt that God will bless your works?  Why are you so lonely? Why do you doubt your value to others and to God? Why are you discontent?

Would not all these things be resolved if you really knew Jesus loves you?

And if you knew yourself and your sin, and you knew Jesus' utter love for you, would you not honor and delight in Him over all?

I started this by thinking of what advice I would give to the next generation that may soon begin in my family. Then I realized that if I could be sure they knew anything, it would be Jesus loves you and all that implies. That it's what I would want you to know too.

Because if I could know anything I wanted to, if I could know it in the real way, with experience and conviction and deep in my heart, like I know the water is cold after feeling my body shiver from it chilling me from head to toe, not just by guessing from the cloudy, windy land, know it in a way that no matter how warm the water looks, I will never believe otherwise, that's what I'd choose to know.

That Jesus loves me.