When We Were Known

There are times when the Word of God stretches us beyond common sense and intellectual comprehension.   In the early verses of Jeremiah there is a Word which contains the call of the prophet.  It is framed inside the Word of the Lord, or to put it another way, it is framed as what the Lord said to Jeremiah.  "Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you..." When we read, we want to ask, "How can this be?  How can we be known before we existed?"     

Of course, this mind boggling word cannot be understood by thinking inside the box where logic and understanding prevails.  Instead, moving toward being aware of what is being said can only happen as we affirm the presence of holy mystery.  Such mystery takes us beyond what can be seen.  It takes us past anything which fits inside the perimeters of what is regarded as normal.    

Seeking to get inside the mystery causes us to consider that our relationship with God our Creator did not begin at our birth, or even at our conception.  One of the things which is easier for us to accept and understand is that our relationship with God will continue when this body has breathed its last, but the idea that a relationship with Him begins before our body takes its first breath, or the first movement in the womb is a stretch too far to make.  Such pondering creates questions we never knew to ask and answers we cannot fathom.