Knowledge by Embrace

I think it is safe to say that the entire world -- every human being -- wants to know God, wants to be united with its Source, wants to go home to the place of its origin.  I think we are made to seek until we find what we were made for.  When we find love, we say to ourselves, like Adam when seeing Eve for the first time:  This is what I've been searching for my whole life; this is 'home.'  This is where I belong; this is what I was made for -- union with my other half.  Before now, I was half; now I am whole.

When the Son of God appeared on earth, He appealed to those who were seeking Love, Truth, and Beauty.  The Scriptures up to that time had hinted at the Revelation of God, but had also hidden the  Face of God -- just as He had spoken to Moses in the Book of Exodus:

I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, [Yahweh] in your presence.  I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compasion on whom I will have compassion.  But...you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live...

 

There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock.  When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen (Ex. 33:19-23).

 

  In the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses tells the people just before they enter the Promised Land:

 

Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of [the Anakites in the land]. The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in in the desert.  There you saw how the Lord your God carried you as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.  In spite of this, you did not trust the Lord your God, who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go (1:29-33).

 

How can we know God?  It is not by searching the Scriptures, though they will indeed reveal to us His "back," so to speak, as His glory passes by in front of us.  We know Him by His embrace of us, as He carries us "all the way" in fire by night and cloud by day, as He 'searches out places for us to camp" on our journey and as He "shows us the way we should go."

 

John the Baptist pointed out Jesus to two of his disciples:  Behold, the Lamb of God!  These men knew the expression, "The Lamb of God."  From childhood, they had celebrated Passover with their families and knew that the lamb was sacrificed each year that they and their families could be freed from slavery in Egypt and could be led to the Land of Promise, where they could settle down, grow crops for themselves and live in peace, as free men and women of God.

 

Immediately, Andrew and the other disciple left John and began to follow Jesus -- no theology, no explanations, no analysis -- just the words, "Behold the Lamb of God."  When Jesus turned around and saw the two men, He asked, "What do you want?"  Their answer was surprising:  "Rabbi, where are you staying?"  And Jesus did not tell them the answer to their question.  Instead, He replied: "Come and see."  And they went and spent the day with Him. 

 

By the end of that day, Andrew knew that this was the Promised One to the land of Israel.  He was able to say to his brother, Simon, "We have found the Messiah."  No theology, no explanations, no analysis -- just an embrace, just knowing by love that he had found the very thing centuries of Jews had been waiting for, just knowing that he was 'home' at last.

 

To each one of us, Jesus says, "Come and See; come and taste, come and experience.  Come!"  No theology, no explanations, no analysis is necessary -- just come to Me, and you will know for the first time what Adam experienced with Eve:  Ah, at last--this is what I have been yearning for, searching for throughout the whole world and my whole life.  This is my other half; this is what I was made to see and to be joined with -- this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, and the two shall be one.

 

We know God only when we are embraced by Him, when we go to see where He is staying, when we enter His dwelling place.  We pass through a cloud of unknowing to perfect knowledge, just as when we fall in love.  We know not through analysis or explanation, but through love.  We cannot explain what we know, because it is not known through the mind, but through the heart.  We are united with Truth, with Beauty, with Goodness, and we are content.