What's in a name?
What’s in a name? If I had to make a guess, it might be everything. Studies have shown that the most pleasurably sounding word in our vocabulary is our name. This is who we are. Our name is our identity, it is how we relate to the world around us. We are not just blob in the world, we matter, we have a name. Most names come with 2 parts, sometimes 3. Our first name, which is usually given to us by a loved ones, and our last name, which carries our past. Both parts of the name carries our personhood. We are someone, and we have a place in the world. We have a history, we have come from somewhere, and that the last name gives us context. Take away our name, and we truly become just a number.
Names are powerful. The names given to our children has a factor of how our children turn out. How we are perceived by the world, and how we view ourselves are all built into our name. There is trend in our society to name our children from how it sounds, but we forget there is an important factor of what the name symbolizes. A name given from our parents in hope and aspirations of what the child would become one day. Our names matter, we matter.
A good name is to be chosen
rather than great riches, and favor
is better than silver or gold.
Proverbs 22:1
I take the Bible very seriously. A name is not just a passing word, but it portends to a life going forward. Names matter, and with that name describes who we are. There is another name, I must interject, because it is a name that is held in the future, we don’t even know it yet. Jesus knows this name, it will be written in stone, this name will never change. Until we learn of this new name, we know it’s surname. Sons and Daughters of God. Many last names take on the name of the father, town, or history.
As Christians we have been adopted in the family of God. Whatever our history here, whatever family we have on this earth, we have a new family. We can proudly state to the world, we belong to the family of God. Our church is a collection of this family. We will be build relationships more lasting that even the families we have on this earth. Whatever our history here, it will be long forgotten, but our eternal name will identify us for the rest of time.
Brothers and Sisters. That is a true term. My fellow church family IS my family. We can identify as the greatest family in the universe, God’s. Whatever our past, whatever our errors, whatever pains in our earthy family, this is not our final identity. We claim the far superior name given to us by the creator Himself, and this name is known in the bottom of our hearts, and this name will be who we are forever. A name so sweet, a name so true, a name forever linked with our elder brother, Jesus “Son of God”.
Connected to the Vine
-Pastor Danny