To be known is to be loved and to be loved is to be known

This morning at church I had the chance to hear our new associate pastor preach for the first time. He did a wonderful job, preaching one of my favorite stories, Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman in John 4. One of the main points of his sermon is that to really love someone, like Jesus loved her, is to know them--to really really love someone you have to know WHO you are loving. AND, the other side of that is that to be known, fully known for who we are inside and out is to be truly loved. When people know us deep down, and stick around to continue loving us...well that's real love. I was just reflecting on this in light of the fact that a certain someone just told me he is in love with me and wants to spend the rest of his life with me. This sermon connected so well with something that happened last night, a realization I had. A friend of mine gave us these random quizzes--a book of 100 questions for each of us on how well you know your bride/groom. I didn't think he'd be excited about them, but he was, and we did the first 20 questions last night and he is destroying me (you get 10 points for each question answered correctly). It's a list of VERY random questions, and apparently this is proving that so far, he knows me better than I know him. Which at first, because I was losing, made me fired up about trying to beat him, but then I realized as I was going to bed last night that the fact that he is winning is a GOOD thing! It means he pays attention to all those little random details that make me, me! He made some comment awhile ago about having "studied" me all year--paying attention to what I love, what I hate, how I react to things, which made me feel so cared for--you don't study someone in depth when you don't care a great deal about them. One question that really caught my attention on this quiz was "you have been given the chance to have a weekend on a private island. Does your bride say, "great! when do we go?" or "umm...all alone? out at sea? what if....?" Those of you who know me well know that it is totally "B"--I really really wish I were the type of person that could just jump at a chance like that and say "great when do we go?" but I'm not. I have to think through all the "what ifs" before I make a cautious and calculated decision. Chuck is totally responsible, but if an opportunity like this arose, he would just jump at the chance. So he of course got it right, he knew I'd respond with questions. We were talking about it for a minute and I said "you're right, I would ask a lot of what if questions...and you still love me even though I am super hesitant about stuff like that?!" and he just said "of couse I do! yes, I still love you even if you wouldn't jump at the chance immediately to go to an island...." He knows me, he knows there is no way I'm going to a desert island with him unless I have had a chance to ask all my 'what if' questions, and yet he loves me.

Memories of that quiz question came back to me sitting in church today when Andrew mentioned that to be known is to be loved and to be loved is to be known. God shows us through the people around us how much He loves us (really He shows us a fraction of how much He loves us because no person on earth could ever fully express that to us) and I have always had amazing people in my life who have loved me and shown me God's love. And now He has blessed me with the presence of another person who is going to spend the rest of his life reminding me that I am loved. I am loved, and I am known, and I can't seem to stop smiling about that :)