To Know and Be Filled

A red winged blackbird is perched on the top of the pine tree. Small feet, created to be able to grasp the flexing top branch, are strong and steady as the chest fills with air, and a song emerges. I listen to the birds, this one soloist and others, seeming to show me a flying choir. The sky is reflecting the sunset sky and slowly the blue of the day is put away again, as shimmers of gray clouds reflect the remaining orange warmth of the sun. It is a moment to reflect, to think and be quiet.

It always seems to take me a while to quiet my mind enough to listen to the “still, small voice,” that I so love to hear. But, as the day fades away, my thoughts slow just a breadth of a pace and I am better able to listen instead. These words, from Ephesians 3 were on my mind tonight.   

For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,  may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Oh how these rich words fill my heart; I let them sink in, just like that bird’s song. These words in particular, “to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God,” these stand out in my mind. Know and be filled. To know of something that passes knowledge, to take it on faith. Well, that is an adventure isn’t it! Sort of like landing on that small branch, trusting it to hold you securely and serve as a stage for the song. This is an inner core of knowing, the kind of knowing that expects seasons in their turn to bring warmth and cool. It is a knowing that is so deep that I can stand and walk on it, using it daily as a road to move about on, a coat to be warmed by, reaching out for a hand that I know will be there. I can, we all can, take this on faith because He is indeed secure.

And be filled, the second portion, and not only filled with some random thing – but with all the fullness of God! The fullness of God, the one who is truly complete in all things, perfect in all things, always faithful, always present, and forever loving of His children. What a beautiful thing to be filled with, like a cool glass of water on a hot summer day, you can feel the temperature within your core dropping as the water moves down with the swallow. I am filled with the fullness of God, the fullness – the completeness of what He is. I am sure I cannot truly comprehend what that means, it is a completion that is beyond this world.