Inscribed upon the heart

Jeremiah 31:31-34

The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt--a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD.

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

Reflection:

What types of information do you know by heart? 

To know something this well means that we can repeat it without much thought.  It is literally on the tip of our tongue. 

How does something become “known” in this way (by heart)?  Perhaps we work to memorize the information.  Or perhaps we think of it or use it so frequently that it becomes embedded and readily accessible.  It is more than just knowing something.  To know something by heart means that it can be transmitted in an instant – no searching the data banks of our mind. 

Perhaps the reason this kind of information is described as being “known by heart” has something to do with its practicality.  Perhaps, also it has something to do with the emotional connection it has to our personal experience. 

When something is written upon our heart we no longer think about it.  Some have said that the distance between the head and the heart is the longest distance in creation, especially when it pertains to our understanding of God’s sovereignty, mercy and love.