[Verse 1]
I saw the face of Jesus
In a little orphan girl
She was standing in the corner
On the other side of the world
And I heard the voice of Jesus
Gently whisper to my heart
Didn't you say you wanted to find Me
Well, here I am, here you are
[Chorus]
So what now
What will you do now that you've found Me?
What now
What will you do with this treasure you've found
I know I may not look like what you expected
But if you'll remember
This is right where I said I would be
You found me, what now?
[Verse 2]
And I saw the face of Jesus
Down on Sixteenth Avenue
He was sleeping in an old car
While his mom went looking for food
And I heard the voice of Jesus
Gently whisper to my soul
Didn't you say you wanted to know me
Well, here I am
And it's getting cold
[Chorus]
[Outro]
So come and know
Come and know, know me now
Come, come and know, know me now
Oh, come and know
Come, come and know, know me now
Come, come and know, know me now
What Now
Song Meaning
Steven Curtis Chapman builds "What Now" out of two encounters instead of one argument. First he sees "the face of Jesus / In a little orphan girl... on the other side of the world," then again "down on Sixteenth Avenue," a boy sleeping in a car while his mom searches for food. Both times the voice is the same: "Didn't you say you wanted to find Me / Well, here I am, here you are." The song refuses to let compassion stay abstract — it locates Jesus specifically in Matthew 25's "least of these," not in a general feeling of goodwill.
The chorus turns the discovery into a demand rather than a comfort: "What will you do now that you've found Me?" Chapman even undercuts easy piety with "I know I may not look like what you expected" — the Jesus who shows up in poverty rarely matches the one people picture. The song's only real resolution is the repeated outro plea, "Come and know Me now," which reframes the whole piece as an invitation still open rather than a lesson already learned.
It's a song built to make the listener uncomfortable in the right way — naming a real orphan and a real car rather than a metaphor, and ending on a question instead of an answer.