A Date with a Counselor

I'm feeling a little defensive about the idea that there's something wrong with just knowing about God as opposed to knowing God. I'm learning a lot about Jesus right now as I read through and study the Gospel of Matthew, and I think that a large part of getting to know someone is knowing about their life outside of their direct involvement in mine. Then I have a better idea and context for his involvement in my life. Otherwise I feel like it's just a series of appointments with a professional counselor whom you know nothing about outside of those appointments... Anyway, that's just my soapbox and justification for enjoying studying about Jesus. Sorry.

Thank God for calculus...

Sometimes God moves loudly, as if spinning to another place like ball lightning. God is, oddly, personal; this God knows. Sometimes en route, dazzlingly or dimly, he shows an edge of himself to souls who seek him, and the people who bear those souls, marveling, know it, and see the skies carousing around them, and watch cells stream and multiply in green leaves. He does not give as the world gives; he leads invisibly over many years, or he wallops for thirty seconds at a time.

We live in all we seek. The hidden shows up in too-plain sight. It lives captive on the face of the obvious - the people, events, and things of the day - to which we as sophisticated children have long since become oblivious. What a hideout: Holiness lies spread and borne over the surface of time and stuff like color.
- Annie Dillard, For the Time Being

I find the story of God to be full of paradox, full of contrast. I draw short of saying contradiction, mostly because of the crossed-finger belief that God is consistent and pure. But, nonetheless, His story - before, now, after - is one with asymptotes, discontinuities. As He disappears into heaven, He comes forth from the dust to catch us by surprise. Whew, what a relief!

The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever...

At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants."