You have put gladness in my heart more than when their grain and wine abound.
Psalm 4:7
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
1 John 3:1
On April 19, the day from which I took these lectionary verses, my baby daughter was born. It took me a few moments to get used to her presence: a squirming, squealing little thing, covered in white gunk, moving its limbs in odd ways. But when she was wiped down and went to sleep with a slight smile on her face, she made little noises in her dreams, and I had a clear sense of recognizing her voice: as if she had been known to me from the beginning of eternity.
Becoming known is the essential remedy in what we call salvation. Too often we do not know ourselves or our neighbor: estranged we live, alienated from who we truly are and one another. In Christ we come to know our own condition, sanctified by way of God suffering and rejoicing as we do. And to encounter God in ourselves and one another is to become known, and to be known is to know: to see the light and the gladness of God in everyone.
