Knowable, but Unknown

He was in the world,

and the world was made through Him,

and the world did not know Him.

John 1:10

This passage just keeps getting richer for me; the more I look at it, the deeper each simple statement about Jesus becomes. Take this verse for instance.

Once more John emphasizes Jesus' role in creation--the world was made through Him. Jesus caused the universe--in the Greek, the cosmos--to come into existence. He was the spoken Word of God that brought it all to pass. He brought the world forth on a universal stage and caused all things to happen according to His Divine will, plan and purpose. In six days He finished the work, and on the seventh day he rested from the labors. Jesus made it all!

Then Jesus came into the world that He had made. The creator of the universe, eternally existent before anything was, stepped into His creation and made Himself known. Recently I heard someone comparing the human perspective of the created universe to the Divine perspective. From where we stand, the universe is enormous, unfathomable, unmeasurable. Just about the time look as far as we can through our giant telescopes, we invent a better telescope that shows us a universe still without end. And yet from God's standpoint, perhaps He sometimes says, "The universe? The universe? Now where did I put the universe?" The created cosmos may be big (and big is such a small term to describe the infinite wonders of creation), but our God is bigger still. In spite of that, He was still able to enter His creation as He willed and do as He willed.

Do you remember the old song:

How big is God?

How great and wide His vast domain.

To try to tell, these lips can only start.

He's big enough to rule the might universe

Yet small enough to live within my heart!

The Creator of all that is entered His Creation as part of it, but when He did, His Creation did not know Him. He knew His creations, but they did not know Him. He perceived everything in the cosmos and understood it, but the cosmos did not perceive His presence, nor understand Him. The world at large did not become acquainted with Him, though He became acquainted with them and all their sorrows. He knew them, but they did not know them. To put it a different way, even though they saw Him and heard Him and experienced Him in a close-up and personal way, they were never intimately knowledgeable about the heart of the One who came to them.

What a shame, what a sadness, what a tragedy. The Creator came into the world He had made, and the world did not know him. But He came so that they might know Him, and in knowing Him believe unto eternal life!