DNJ Column 2/17/19 How does one come to know God? The largeness of such a question need not daunt our interest in the way other largenesses might. For instance, I recently read a book by a man who read the entire 20 volume Oxford English Dictionary (OED) in a year and wrote a book about it, “Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages,” by Ammon Shea. Now that’s a daunting task. But coming to know God is different in many ways. For our purposes, it’s relevant that the OED does not seek to know me. For Ammon Shea, it was all one way. He reflects a lot in his book on the grinding necessity of staying in his seat for long hours turning pages and making notes. It’s like those unhappy relationships where one partner does all the work. How we come to know God is a large question but need not be daunting for several reasons, perhaps the most important of which is that God is indeed not the OED, nor any other object. And he’s not the OED in a lot of ways. The most important difference is that the OED does not want to know you. It’s not that the OED wants not to know you, and it’s not that the OED just doesn’t care, it’s just not a capacity of the OED. I’ve had a miniaturized version in my office since college days (comes with its own magnifying glass) and it’s not said a kind word to me in all that time. It is lifeless, an object, a creation of man, that carries the results of a lot of labor, and love, and knowledge, but not capable of initiating anything. When we seek to know God, there’s a given involved, a head start as it were. Because of the nature of God, our own interest in the question of coming to know God is an indication of his interest in us. I’m not speaking in any mechanical sense. It’s not that he “meets us halfway,” as is sometimes said. God starts the whole process. God acts, and is, in order for the knowing to even be possible. When I desire to know God, I am already beginning to know by virtue of that desire which is his willingness to be known. Because of his desire, he gives me that same desire. My desire to know God is a gift from the object of my desire that not only begins the process but enables the process to say on the right track. Because God initiates the process of me coming to know him, it is enabled to go in the right direction, through having begun on the right road. If I consider my knowing God as generated by and from myself, I may stumble in that knowing through lack of humility, and simple misapprehension of the nature of our relationship. Moses asked to see God’s glory and God said I will show you my goodness. One can know a chemical formula for example, by “force,” but knowing a person presumes willingness and love on the part of both parties. And when one is the creator and one is the creature, the path of successful knowing, however it might be described, is always the one given by the creator. The humility of God is a phrase used by Christian theologians to describe the coming of God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, initiating, seeking, beginning the search for each child of God, by showing us who he is in ways not knowable without God’s self-unveiling. In the willing, innocent suffering of the Man of God on a cross, God reveals, among many things, his willingness to be known by all drawn to him, as well as his desire to know the creature who responds in humility and love. All moments and all directions and all questions meet at the cross. “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” Steve Odom is pastor of Central Christian Church on E. Main St. and may be reached at steven.odom@gmail.com