Known

Tomorrow is Mother’s day and you know what that means…it’s time for men to scramble to the local Wal-Mart and pick up a last minute Mother’s Day card from the scant remnants from the greeting card display.  It is, in fact, mildly possible that the only remaining cards are the “singing cards” which are as expensive as they are annoying.  So instead of buying an overwhelmingly costly card that exceeds the expense of the $5 Caribou card that most men were planning on putting inside, they will decide to have the kids whip together a “homemade card,” with white computer paper and crayons that were pilfered from the local Perkins. 

I am happy to say that this is not the case with me…this year.  I have finished my Mother’s Day gift shopping hours ago. 

I tend to rebel against certain trends…like Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day.  This has at times generated some tension in the Olson home.  I guess I resist them, because I don’t want Hallmark telling me when to give a gift to the people that I care about…although…sometimes I guess maybe someone should.  Incidentally, I also don’t want Hallmark to make Christmas movies anymore either…but that topic is for a different day. 

I am not always the most aware husband, or son in regards to gift giving, yet I find that I am drawn to give.  One year I was drawn to give my wife a brand new vacuum for Mother’s Day! Despite what you are all thinking…she loved it…and she in fact wanted it.  I knew that she wanted it and thus I knew that it was safe to give.  This kind of knowledge comes only from relationship.

In Galatians 4:8-20, Paul draws our attention to the beauty of a relationship with Jesus. This is an incredible statement that Paul makes in that culture, and it is just as incredible in our culture today.  We CAN have a REAL relationship with God.  Our interactions with God are not just a one sided effort on our part to “appease” Him or somehow earn the right to be “accepted” by Him. 

May we come to know that we can have a real relationship with God… to know God and to be known by God.