Being known

It is so hard to believe we are coming up on a year here in Williamsport, PA!  It has been a VERY full year...full of all of the joys and pain that transitions bring.  Those little joys are why I actually enjoy settling into new places....I love discovering all there is to know about a new place and finding my favorites:   Eder's ice cream, Tony's Deli, Wegmans, Venice Pizza, TJMaxx, the farmers market, and, of course, Lycoming Physical Therapy (check out our new website: http://lycomingpt.com/home).  
 And with new places also comes new people, and with new people comes more joys and pain of transition;  navigating that treacherous world of developing new friendships.  We're in a whole new place where no one knows us and the fear of rejection is always there, so everything is all awkward and junior-high-like again.  You know, when you go to the grocery store in sweatpants with no make-up and your hair all a mess, and you see someone you know, then you walk away and wonder if the person thinks less of you because you look like a slob.  Or you have people over to your house, and you want everything to be just right, but it never is.  Once someone really knows you, you don't worry about those things...but as relationships are just forming, first impressions make such a difference! 
How wonderful it is to be known!  Psalm 139:1-6 says
^"1 O LORD, you have searched me
       and you know me.
 ² You know when I sit and when I rise;
       you perceive my thoughts from afar.
 ³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
       you are familiar with all my ways.
 ⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
       you know it completely, O LORD.
 ⁵ You hem me in—behind and before;
       you have laid your hand upon me.
 ⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
       too lofty for me to attain."

He sees us as we really are: no makeup, hair a mess, dressed in rags, with our house dirty and disorganized, and He even know all of our thoughts!  And He still accepts us as His children, loves us beyond what we can even imagine, and even delights in us!
Zep. 3:17 says "The LORD your God is with you,
                        he is mighty to save.
                        He will take great delight in you,
                        he will quiet you with his love,
                        he will rejoice over you with singing."

Such knowledge truly is too wonderful for me.  I don't think I really can grasp that...the God of all creation rejoicing over me?  I think I will let that take over my thoughts today instead of worrying about first impressions.