Recently, I had the sad privilege of delivering the message at funerals for individuals who had been supported by Christian Horizons for many years. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to know either of the individuals very well. I had met one briefly in his home and then I was able to spend a bit of time with him and the staff team supporting him at the hospital. The other, I did not get a chance to meet at all.
The amazing thing is after attending the services that celebrated these exceptional lives I feel like I do know them a bit. At each service the staff and friends of the deceased shared stories about them and remembered them in such an honouring way that I got a bit of a sense of who they had been.
We all know that knowing someone is very different from knowing about someone. I know what Harrison Ford looks like and I can tell you lots about his career but I don’t know him. Being able to describe a person, whether it is a physical description of them or a description of their actions does not mean you know them. I could read the binders at the programs that describe in great detail those who lived there but I still wouldn’t know them.
The Hebrew word for “know” is yada. (it is easy to remember yada, yada, yada! I know, I know, I know!) It can mean something as simple as to know/ understand, but it generally has a much deeper meaning. To know something or someone in the bible means to be changed or affected by it. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil they didn’t just learn what the difference between good and evil were, they experienced it and they were never the same. We understand that knowing about God is not what he wants but that we are to respond and be changed as a result. One of my theology professors (Dr. V. Shepherd at Tyndale Seminary) likes to say “if you know someone for 30 years but you are not changed you don’t really know them”.
We are meant to know God and know each other. As I listened to the staff talk about the individuals they had served, they shared favourite memories, things they had learned, and they laughed and cried. They knew those they served. It is such a privilege for us to be able to know the wonderful people we serve as well as to be known by them. In doing so we are able to know God more.
Mark Wallace
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