Transparent to God

Follow meEpiphany
Celebration of God
Manifested in the World
January 18, 2015

 Scripture Reading: John 1:43-51

When Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, he said of him, ‘Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!’ Nathanael asked him, ‘Where did you come to know me?’ Jesus answered, ‘I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.’ Nathanael replied, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’ Jesus answered, ‘Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.’ And he said to him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’
— John 1:47-51

 What does it mean to you to comprehend that God knows everything about you? Psalm 139:1-6 describes this phenomenon:

O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away.
You search out my path and my lying down,
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
O Lord, you know it completely.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is so high that I cannot attain it.

 I have what I think is a very strange reaction to the idea that I am transparent to God. I find it very freeing. All that time I invest in trying to be someone I am not is not wasted on God. All the time I invest in running from who I really am is also not wasted on God. Standing before God I am me, warts and all, and it is at that moment that my warts can be honed down and my gifts can be manifested and fulfilled. Of course, that is not just true for me, I believe, it is true for all of God’s children.

I think our scripture today describes Nathanael’s moment of transparency with God. It changed his life forever and his fulfilling his gifts is one of the reasons we know about God today.

Prayer: Lord, as painful as it sometimes can be, I welcome the transparency of our relationship and ask that you strengthen my confidence when you call me to use a gift with which I am not yet comfortable and that you ease my grief when I must give up habits of my heart that are not a part of whom you created me to be. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.