Dear Sovereign Redeemer and other friends,

A phenomenal quote from Chapter 3, “Knowing and Being Known”, of J.I. Packer’s classic, “Knowing God”:

“There is unspeakable comfort – the sort of comfort that energizes, be it said, not enervates – in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my good. There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench his determination to bless me. There is, certainly, great cause for humility in the thought that he sees all the twisted things about me that my fellow humans do not see (and am I glad!), and that he sees more corruption in me than that which I see in myself (which, in all conscience, is enough). There is, however, equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that, for some unfathomable reason, he wants me as his friend, and desires to be my friend, and has given his Son to die for me in order to realize this purpose.”

Wow. Double wow. Because God is all-knowing, there can never be a discovery about any of His people that can disillusion Him and quench His determination to love us. He wants us as His friends, and He wants to be our Friend, and Jesus has laid down His life to bring us together with Him. Beautiful.