6: Names

I love names.

I love the meanings behind them, the stories.

I'm a firm believer that you never, ever make fun of someone's name. (Well, we really shouldn't be making fun of anything about a person - but most especially their name.) That's their core identity, something so deeply embedded in their very being that to damage it renders a deep wound.

My 3-year-old is in a phase where she loves to pretend to be her favorite cartoon character of the moment - so much so that when I kiss her goodnight she requests for me not to use her given name but rather her animated alter-ego's name.

I usually comply, but always have to sneak her real name in there somewhere - which of course completely irritates her - because I just can't call her by anything else. I love the name we gave her and to hear her refer to herself as anything else just doesn't seem right. It's not who she is.

Sometimes I think of all the people, in all the world, and wonder how is it that God even notices me much less knows my name?

Isaiah 43:1 says:

But now, this is what the LORD says—
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
"Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine."

Of course, in this context, the Lord is speaking of His people the Israelites. But as New Testament believers we know we have been grafted in (Romans 11:17) to also be His people.

We also are told in the Psalms that God knows us intimately, having knit us together in our mother's womb (Psalm 139:13)

So I feel like the above verse from Isaiah is one we can claim for ourselves as well - God knows each and every one of us. He knows our names. He calls us by our names.

And the best part of that verse I think comes next:

We are His.

I think "Child of God" is possibly the best name of all.