Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?"
Jesus answered and said to him,
"Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree." // John 1:48
Another flurry of excited children scurries past me as I step closer to the diagram in the dimly lit museum hall. By this point in my trip to the National Air and Space Museum, I am used to wonders stacked on wonders and the feeling of quiet astonishment that accompanies every interstellar discovery. But this one feels different.
I squint up at the illustration before me and read the caption: the planet Jupiter is so large, it claims, that it can fit more than eleven Earths inside of it.
Suddenly struck dumb by a sense of my own smallness in the face of the universe’s grandeur, I wonder how it could possibly be that the Lord Who created all of this knows me so intimately. And I imagine that I understand something of how Nathanael, also known as the Apostle Saint Bartholomew, must have felt in today’s Gospel, in his first encounter with the Lord.
While another future Apostle, Saint Philip, has brought Nathanael to the Lord, Jesus’ reply reminds us of an essential truth: God sees us first. He sees us and draws us to Himself.
He sees us at our desks, scrambling to finish research papers with hours to spare. He sees us in our kitchens, cooking dinner for our families. He sees us grocery shopping, driving to work, exercising, playing the piano, vacuuming the floor, writing emails, reading books, sipping tea, chatting with friends.
Just like He saw Nathanael beneath the fig tree, the Lord sees each of us in the details of our ordinary lives. Nothing escapes the notice of our Creator, and the God Who made everything—including a Jupiter so big it could fit eleven Earths—calls you, right where you are today, into an intimate relationship with Him.
Sister, won’t you “come and see” (John 1:46) what He has planned for you?
Dr. Sarah Zentner is a bibliophile and “hygge” enthusiast who delights in steaming mugs of tea, freshly baked pastries, the Little Way, and all things true, good, and beautiful. She holds a Ph.D. in English from the Catholic University of America and lives with her toy poodle, JoJo, in Washington, D.C., where she teaches literature at an all-girls Catholic secondary school.
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