This morning we longed to know Jesus better. Tonight, let's consider the other side of that relationship: how perfectly our heavenly Joseph knows us.

Here is the staggering truth—He knew you completely before you knew anything about him! "His eyes saw our unformed substance. In his book were written all the days that were formed for us, when as yet there were none of them." Before you existed in the world, you existed in his heart.

When you were his enemy, he knew you—your misery, your madness, your wickedness. He saw it all. When you wept bitter tears of despair and saw him only as an angry judge, he was looking at you as his beloved brother, his beloved sister. His heart was breaking for you. He has never once mistaken his chosen ones. Not once! He has always seen them as objects of his infinite love. "The Lord knows those who are his" is just as true when the prodigal is feeding pigs as when he's feasting at the Father's table.

But we? We did not know our royal Brother. And from that ignorance sprouted a thousand sins. We locked our hearts against him and refused him entrance. We suspected his motives and dismissed his words. We rebelled against his rule and offered him no loving homage. The Sun of Righteousness blazed in the sky, and we were blind to it. Heaven came down to earth, and earth did not even notice.

Thank God those days are behind us! Yet even now, what little we know of Jesus compared to what he knows of us. We have barely begun to study him. But he? He knows us completely. Through and through. And what a mercy that the ignorance is on our side, not his! If he did not know us, we would be without hope.

But he will never say, "I never knew you." Never! He will speak our names on that great day. And even now, even today, he reveals himself to us in ways the world cannot see.