Known
by Name
by
Jan Kwiatkowski
One of the first things we want to know when a new child
enters a family is their name. When someone we know begins a new relationship
and it’s looking serious, we want to know their name. Children begin to
understand the significance and power of naming when they are invited into the
process of naming the family pet. Many of us have strong preferences for, and
associations with, our names or nicknames.
Choosing, knowing, and sharing a name moves us from a
position of distance from a person to a closer relationship with a particular
someone we know by name.
In business or professional circles, being invited to
call someone by their first name, rather than by their title, shifts the nature
of the relationship. If naming and knowing a name has this much power in our
human relationships, just how much more astonishingly amazing is it that God
always has, and always will, know us by name? We are the “much-loved Child of
God.” And, what’s most astounding and almost beyond comprehension is that God
welcomes and longs for us to call God by name.
In our human frailty, even during those times when we
stop calling on God, nothing we could ever do would cause our Creator to stop
calling our name and longing for the sound of our response. On this
Tuesday in Holy Week, I invite you to pause for a few moments and open your
heart to hear that you are a much-loved Child of God.
Making
It Personal:
How might you invite your heart to hear the reality that
you are a much-loved Child of God?
Reflect on the reality that God longs for the sound of
our response. What is the name you call God?
How did you come to know God by that name?
Living
Well Through Lent 2021
Copyright
©2021 Scott Stoner.
All
rights reserved.
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