By Name

“I have called you by name, you are mine” (Isaiah 43:1).

One of the desires of the human heart is to be known.  More specifically, to be known, appreciated for who we are, and loved.  When someone uses your name, it makes things personal.  If someone knows your name, and uses it when addressing you, it creates an intimacy that would not be there had they not called you by name.

Have you ever had the experience of someone calling your name when you did not think they knew you?  This happened to me once as a young teenager, just beginning high school.  We had a “singing” principal who would occasionally sing going up and down the hallways.  He would call out to students by name at times and encourage them as they made their way down the hallways.  One day, he called out to me!  I didn’t even know he knew me. 

Imagine if someone of prominence knew your name, like the Governor, or President.  How special would that be to get a phone call or a shout out where they called you by name? Friends, I want to say to you, we have something much greater by far than any of those experiences.  Our Creator, Love Himself, knows our names.  We have a God who is intimately acquainted with us, who knows our lying down and our rising up, who has the very hairs of our head all numbered, as well as our days. 

Before we were formed in the womb, he knew us.   The one who brings us from dust, who speaks, and things come into being, knows our frames, and has fashioned our hearts.  The one who clothes the flowers of the field in splendor, and takes notice of every little bird that falls, is calling out to each of us by name.