Do you know who the president is?  Sure….Barack Obama, right.  He lives in the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.  I doubt any adult that has lived in the U.S. for any amount of time or even in most parts of the world would not be able to answer that question.  But then again, recalling Jay Leno’s “Jay Walking” segments makes me wonder if this is indeed true.  Anyway, let’s assume that it’s true, at least for you.

So you know the President.  But have you met him?  There are some that might say they have; possibly even have shaken his hand.  But I’m not talking about a brief encounter on the campaign trail or something along those lines.  I mean….have you MET him?  In the grand scheme of things, few have.  Even for the President of the United States, there are few in the U.S. and the world that can say they have truly met President Obama.

So, if any one of us were to travel to D.C. and were to tell the guard at the gate that we are there to see the President, we will be told, in no uncertain terms, to go away.  Indeed, we might even be detained for questioning to ensure that we are not mentally ill.  But why?  We know him.  Why couldn’t we gain an audience with him?

The answer to that comes from a different question.  It’s not a matter of whether we know him.  The question is: Does he know us?  If the President knows us, then we will be granted access to him when we come to visit.  There will be no questioning of why we’ve come or what we’re there to do; he will know us and those things will be known through our relationship.

So how do relationships get started?  At some point, the parties involved have to have met.  From this initial meeting, the relationship grows and matures with the parties involved becoming more familiar with each other.  This growth sometimes occurs slowly over time.  In other instances, things advance more rapidly.  But regardless of the pace of the relationship, those involved are changed due to having been in it.  Perhaps in small, subtle ways, perhaps in larger, more profound ways, all of us have an effect on the others we come to know.

Let’s consider a dramatic, perhaps absurd, scenario.  If someone was to step out into the middle of a freeway in front of a semi-truck, the two would have a meeting and they would become quite intimate very quickly.  Neither would come away from the meeting unaffected.  Were he to survive such an encounter, his life would be profoundly different afterwards, I’m certain.

So let me ask you – Do you know Jesus?  Do you have a relationship with Him?  Have you met Him?  Did you come away from the encounter changed?  Is your life different since the meeting?

I assure you, meeting the God of the universe is infinitely more profound than stepping in front of a semi.