Articles
God Sees Right Through Me
God Sees Right through Me
by Jacob Hudgins
“Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, ‘Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!’ Nathanael said to him, ‘How do you know me?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you’”(John 1:47).
I love this little story. On sight Jesus knows Nathanael, and knows him thoroughly. He knows there is no deceit in him—a description that Nathanael finds so fitting that he immediately asks Jesus how he knows this! Then Jesus astounds him further, saying that he saw him in a moment when he thought he was all alone.
My first impulse is to wonder how Jesus would describe me if he said just one sentence like this to me. Sadly, I don’t think “in whom there is no deceit” would fit me. But what would? How does Jesus think of me?
This passage reminds me of the tremendous biblical truth that God sees right through me. He is not influenced by my facades. He is not impressed with my bluster. He is not fooled by my tendency to blame others for my bad choices. He knows me inside and out. But it also reminds me that that’s not entirely bad! He also sees the good in me—the earnest desire to do right, to really obey, to be sincere, to treat others right. He sees when I try to make right what I’ve done wrong, as much as I can. He sees when I intend things to go well and they don’t. Like Nathanael, he sees things in me that bring him pleasure.
The Hebrew writer tells us, “And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account”(Heb 4:13). He sees right through us. David praises God because “you know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether”(Psa 139:2-4). He knows me completely.
Yet in spite of all God knows about me, he still wants me. He still loves me, and calls to me. He grieves when I spurn him, and rejoices when I come home to him. What a God!
