1 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, 3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.
We play a harmless game with young babies. We dangle a toy in front of them, then make the toy "disappear" (behind our backs). The toy isn't actually gone, but they believe it has disappeared into thin air. The react in a puzzled way. Then we bring the toy back and they are amazed as if it magically vanished and magically reappeared. But as infants grow and mature into toddlers and children they understand it’s not magic— the toy still remains but is being hidden . It's called object permanence.
In the same way, our understanding of God often lacks object permanence. When circumstances come our way (an offensive statement, a hurtful comment, a stressful external pressure, a sickness, an inconvenience, a situation we would have never chosen for ourselves) we are quick to forget who God says He really is— we either bring Him to our level (make Him unholy), or we make our problems bigger than God (make Him unfaithful, unloving, powerless), or He simply vanishes off our radar and we let our flesh take the driver seat.
Luke is writing this book and these words to ensure that we grow in absolutely certainty (v.4) that God’s Word and God’s truths transport us into the true reality of God and Jesus Christ. You and I may often feel like we are those young infants without a mature memory, without object permanence. But the encouragement from Luke is that every moment studying, reading, digesting, connecting God’s very Word to our hearts, our sin, our failures, the external pressures and circumstances that come our way, our relationships, is not wasted energy whatsoever. It is transforming the hearts of His people from one degree of glory to another (slowly but surely). It is building object permanence and Holy Spirit sealed certainty in God Himself.