Intimately Loved and Fully Known

Written by Erin Richer

For most adults, the day the world woke up to Hilary Clinton losing the 2016 election is etched in our memory. We all remember exactly where we were. I was in the hospital with my daughter while she recovered from her third arm surgery. The faux leather chair and footrest I was provided facilitated an easy all-nighter. I got to see the results roll in live. The commentators’ tones transformed from anticipation of Clinton’s victory to stunned disbelief as they began to wrap their heads around the reality that Donald Trump would be our next President. The nation was shocked.

For me, the most vivid memory of that election cycle was the morning after Hillary lost and the nation waited hours for her concession speech. When she finally appeared, the cameras panned the women in the audience as they slumped, faces wet with tears. The woman they had served for probably countless weeks, months, maybe years, the woman they believed in, the woman they hoped would be the first to lead the free world had failed to take the Presidency. They were devastated. But there was some strange emotion the scene evoked in me. 

When Hillary Clinton finally came out to address them, there was this strange and empty chasm between the depth of their emotion for her and her lack of connection with them. For all of the investment they had in her, none of them got access to what had happened those hours before the doors opened and what was going on in her heart. None of them really knew her, yet their hopes, dreams, and lives were completely wrapped up in her. Success was inevitable—until suddenly it wasn’t. They believed in her and yet she didn’t—rather couldn’t—have known them in return. The emotion I was feeling was pity. I pitied them.

This moment set the stage for a mind-boggling revelation a few weeks later. I was studying Matthew and reading Acts at the same time. I found myself thinking about Jesus’ second coming because in Acts chapter one, an angel appeared after Jesus’ ascension and told the observers, “This very Jesus who was taken up from among you to heaven will come as certainly—and mysteriously—as He left.” So one day, as I was hiking, pondering this seemingly impossible promise, I paused, faced east and looked up into the clouds. The sun was rising over the ridgeline as I imagined what that moment will be like. Matthew tells us it’s going to be seen like lightning flashing from east to west. We won’t miss it. As certainly as watching his flesh and blood rise to heaven, He will return flesh and blood. So I imagined… what will that be like? What will it feel like?

When Jesus comes this time, He is going to come with final and complete authority. He is coming as King of kings and Lord of lords, not as a baby in a manger as He did the first time. He’s not going to gradually grow a following. This time He’s coming on clouds of glory and we will all recognize Him as King. The entire world will see Him and know exactly who He is—God—both Love and Justice in the flesh. But here’s the amazing part…

For those of us who have accepted His invitation to know Him, we will know Him intimately. We will have had access to all of Him because the same Spirit in Him is in us giving us access to His very being! He is our groom, our brother, our friend… our KING. All of our hopes and dreams that have been entangled in His promises He’s made from the beginning of time will be coming true. Perhaps we will stand tall, faces wet with tears, but not in devastation, rather in the realization of all of our investment in Him, our hopes, dreams and expectations finally coming true. And then what… will we fall flat in awe? Or will we look Him in the eyes? Because of our intimate relationship with Him, I imagined the latter and so here comes the best part…

When He comes He won’t look at a sea of people He doesn’t know as earthly kings do; we won’t be a crowd of unknown bodies He has come to rule. No! His eyes will meet ours and He will know us throughout our innermost parts. Our warrior King, the most powerful and famous flesh to ever touch our earthly dwelling place—will not merely look upon us, but in His gaze we will suddenly grasp just how known we are by Love incarnate. 

Pause for a moment. Close your eyes and imagine your King entering the world in majesty and you will already be intimately acquainted.

Galatians 4:8-9 (CSB) says,“In the past, since you didn’t know God, you were enslaved to things that by nature are not gods. But now, since you know God, or rather have become known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elements?” When I read this, this moment of imagining my Jesus’ return floods me.

Imagine perfect love looking you in the eyes as He comes on a white horse from the clouds with the words King of kings and Lord of lords scrawled on His leg and you will know Him, or rather you will be known by Him. If you grasp the good news that is the Gospel, if you understand the work of the cross, then this is intoxicatingly good news.

And so, let us put all of our hopes, all of our dreams, and all of our expectations in the One to whom we belong. The One to whom we have full access. The One who knows us intimately and loves us completely. Maranatha! “He is coming.”

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