People think I’m good at remembering names. Maybe I am. But I think it’s more likely that I work to remember people’s names. I write their name down after meeting them. I think about them. Pray for them. When I received the call to my current congregation, we came out to visit for a few days. I made sure to get a directory so I could start remembering names.
Because names are important. Names are powerful.
I remember one guest who attended back to back weeks in my first year here. When I remembered his name upon his second visit, he was downright stunned, “You remembered my name.”
Names open our eyes. After Jesus rises from the dead, the first person He appears to is Mary Magdalene. She does not recognize Him until He says her name, “Mary.”
When Martha is overwhelmed and wanting her sister (a different Mary) to help her serve, Jesus says her name. Twice even. “Martha, Martha…”
Throughout the Scriptures God changes people’s names.
Abram to Abraham
Sarai to Sarah
Jacob to Israel
Solomon to Jedediah
Simon to Peter
And sometimes the name is not changed, it is simply given by God. Ishmael, Isaac, John the Baptist, and Jesus are all given their names from a heavenly source.
When we begin and end worship, many traditions do so in the name of God. When we are baptized, it is into God’s Triune Name.
But my favorite naming story of profound power is when Hagar names God. Hagar has been abused and mistreated and understandably runs away. When the Angel of the LORD (the Malak Yhwh who many scholars believe is a pre-incarnate Christ) shows up to comfort Hagar, she calls Him El Roi, the God who sees me.
This concept of the power of names is a common theme in popular fantasy. The Inheritance Cycle as well as The Kingkiller Chronicle dive deeply into the power of names. When you know the true name of something, you have power over it. There is an interesting concept in The Kingkiller Chronicle (the first book of which is called The Name of the Wind). When someone speaks the true name of something, everyone who does not know the true name just hears the common name. When the main character speaks the true name of the wind, one of his friends just hears him say “wind.”
I think there is something to that when it comes to God’s relationship with us. He knows us. When Jesus calls Lazarus from his grave, He uses his name: “Lazarus, come out!”
I wonder sometimes if when Jesus uses a name, He uses a true name. He understands everything there is to know about us. He knows us better than we know ourselves. When He calls Lazarus, He knows Lazarus perfectly, and Lazarus hears his name…even though he is dead. Everyone else hears Lazarus’s common name. But if they had ears to hear (and mayhaps some of them did) they would have heard something deeper, truer, more profound and comprehensive.
I don’t know. I’m simply wondering. And I’m not suggesting that we run after some sort of secret knowledge. Not at all.
All I’m saying is that God knows you and calls you by name (Isaiah 43:1). And what God knows is deeper than what everyone else knows. When God calls your name, He sees you.
Thanks for reading.
Andy