[Like 2Pac, he be dropping new joints even after he dead. Pretty sure this really is the last one, though. -- LYT]
Don’t I know you?
“Of course I know you. We met at a conference 20 odd years ago and I remember you well.” What sort of knowledge is that? The claim to know someone is a big one, and unlikely to be true in anything but the most superficial sense. The trouble, I think, is that it sounds so clumsy to ask, “Are you acquainted with so and so?” Yet it’s surely better that the claim to know someone should at least imply a degree of understanding of the person under discussion.
Fairly often people are actually intending to indicate that they really know what makes the other person tick, and how they will react to other people and situations. “I know you; you’ll be telling me next that I’m a liar” is the sort of phrase I have in mind. It’s bound to be inaccurate and only tells us something about the hostility felt by the speaker. I can say I know some people better than others but I need to remember that I don’t know anybody as they really are. I can’t even say that I know myself. I think I know myself a little better than I did, say, thirty years ago but I can’t even be certain about that.
It was said of Jesus, whose birth we celebrate at Christmas, that he knew what was in man. The claim is that he and he alone really knew what other people were like, how they felt and how they thought. One of the reasons for his entering our world and our lives was to help us see and live by the truth. Those who love the truth love him, whether they know it or not. Part of the truth is that I don’t really know anyone very well. Let’s rejoice that however little we know God (or anyone else), he knows us and loves us in spite of that.
–Peter Graham
