"Jesus spoke these things, looked up to heaven, and said...'Righteous Father! The world has not known You. However, I have known You, and these have known that You sent Me. I made Your name known to them and will make it known, so the love You have loved Me with may be in them and I may be in them.'" (John 17:1a, 25, 26 CSB)
One of the most beautiful tributes I've ever read was the dedication by modern hymn-writers Keith and Kristyn Getty of one of their projects to their daughter Eliza Joy, "who is to us as her name."
This moved me in particular because I also have a daughter whose middle name is Joy, and she has absolutely been to us "as her name."
My friends, we have been journeying through God's great names for five months now, and with all my heart, I hope you can say that God is to you as His name.
He is Redeemer...and He redeems us.
He is Emmanuel...and He is with us.
He is Yahweh-Shalom...and He gives us peace.
He is El Roi...and He sees us.
He is Love...and He loves us.
The Message paraphrase of John 17:26 reads, "I have made your very being known to them—Who you are and what you do—and continue to make it known, so that your love for me might be in them exactly as I am in them."
Note the substitution of "your very being" in this paraphrase for "Your name" in the CSB version above. I love the merging of these interpretations of the original Greek language because I think that, together, they illustrate a profound truth: God's names tell us Who He is. They reflect His nature, His character, His essence...in short, His "very being." And, they reflect actions that come out of His nature: what He does.
To know God is to love Him, so to know Him more is to love Him more. And to love Him more is to enjoy deeper relationship with Him. The better we know His names, the more all this knowing, loving, and enjoying happens. And I believe the same is true when we know more about His names: what they're like, what they represent, what they do.
This month, I invite you to come with me on a second Names of God side-trip. Once again, this is not a detour. The road is not closed. But much as veering off the beaten path on an actual journey often leads to some of the most delightful discoveries, so, too, will we come upon some lovely scenery on this ancillary avenue.
And when this part of our journey is done, I pray we will be better equipped to follow the lead of Jesus, our Guide, and declare—with all humility and full respect for the weight of our calling—"I have made Your name known."
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I'd love to hear from you! Feel free to tell me what you really think. Years ago, I explained to my then-two-year-old that my appointment with a counselor was "sort of like going to a doctor who will help me be a better mommy." Without blinking, she replied, "You'd better go every day." All of which is just to say I've spent some time in the school of brutal honesty!