There is a kind of knowing that afterward you can never not know. The kind that, no matter what anyone says, you know what you know, and that deep foundational knowledge is unshakeable. ~Margaret Silf
What is the “knowing” Margaret Silf refers to here? Knowing that we are deeply loved by God. The love of God goes far beyond a depth we can really wrap our heads around. Once we understand that we are loved by God, once we really get this concept, it is unshakeable. Not only is our understanding unshakeable, this deep foundational knowledge impacts the rest of our lives.
When we get to this point of understanding we are loved by God we find that we can face things and people in our life that we never dreamed we could. Pieces of our past may make us feel unloveable. People in our lives may make us feel unworthy. They may make us doubt our sense of who we are. There may be things in our lives that creep in out of the blue and cast a cloud of doubt over our sense of purpose.
When we possess the gift from God– a deep foundational knowledge that we are loved– no one, and I mean no one, can take that away from us. For what we hold within us is a place that is only ours. A place that is a sacred space and the only other person who enters that space besides ourselves is God. This is our core. The place where we know, without a doubt, who we are. The inner space where we know we belong to God and where we experience authentic love.
And when people in our lives try to make us feel unworthy or unloveable, we return to our space, our sacred, holy space, and we ask God to help us remember the depth with which God loves us. Sometimes, we must return there more frequently because those in our lives or events in our lives try to seep into our foundation and make us feel unworthy or unloveable. That is not the case, our deep foundational knowledge of God’s love for us tells us otherwise.
In time, when we re-emerge from our shared space with God, we carry with us again, our deep foundational knowledge that is unshakeable– we are, indeed, worthy to be loved by God.
So true. I only had a head knowledge of this until I was almost 43 years old and I struggled. Then the miracle happened and I knew this truth at a time when I wasn’t even wrestling with it. My life changed immediately. Ever since, whatever else I have doubted, I have been absolutely concinced that I am loved. Whatbthis means, of course, is something which just goes on deppening all the time.
What a gift, Maria! So thankful that you came to this understanding. I pray that God always deepens this within you as you already suggested God would!