Rachel Whisman

There is a different excitement that buzzes in the air as the kids return to class in January. Rather than welcoming new faces, you greet familiar children. Instead of shyness and awkwardness, you receive bubbly personalities that are thrilled to be back and ecstatic to share everything with you. There is no fumbling over trying to remember each other’s names, nor a lack of clarity on the classroom management system. Students slip right back into the routine and groove of the day.

As their teacher, I have learned them. From the first day to now, I know their pinpoints and how to challenge and encourage them. I approach some with more gentleness, while others with more firmness. However well I have grown to know them, I still fall short because of the natural limitation of my finitude. I am not all-knowing, but I am constantly growing in my knowledge of them each day and then adjusting with this new understanding. 

As the week back from Christmas break progressed, I was mesmerized by the fact that God does not have to learn. With my students, I know them better because I have had time to get to know them, but God never had to “get to know us.” He didn’t have to sit down, like me, on the carpet with the class for “morning meeting” and ask everyone to share their name, favorite ice-cream topping, or what their favorite thing to do over the weekend was. He already knew the answer to them all. Even when we get to the last day of school, I will have had just a glimpse into knowing my students, whereas He will be just as acquainted with them as on the first day of school. 

This realization struck home as Ephesians 1:4-5 swirled in my thoughts and anchored my heart,

“even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.”

His choice. His knowing. His adoption. His purpose and His will. From eternity past, he set his love on his own. He never acquired information from anyone to make that choice, but it was made by his own volition and perfect knowledge. 

There is a genuine soul-satisfying comfort in that. We are growing in our understanding of God every single step of the way, but he is not growing in knowing us because He is never learning. That is an oasis and beacon in this overstimulating information-driven age that we live in. You can stop and rest in this knowledge alone. You are fully known and loved by the Father, even when the frustration lingers when others don’t understand you. He does, and knows you perfectly and attends to you with more care than you could offer yourself.