By Jessica Brodie
Have you ever been startled and simultaneously touched when someone used your first name? The other morning, I asked my Alexa device to set a timer for me. She responded with, “Good morning, Jessica! I’m setting your timer now!” It probably sounds dumb, but her use of my name immediately brought a smile to my face.
I feel the same way when someone I don’t know well greets me by name in public, or when I’ve been feeling a little anxious in a crowded situation and a friend calls my name, saying, “Jessica, come sit over here with me.”
It’s a sweet and personal touch when someone calls you by your given name. It’s like they’re extending a little hug or a friendly gesture of encouragement, like they’re saying, “I know you, and I am with you in this.”
What’s especially beautiful is knowing that it’s not just people (or our Alexa devices!) that know our names. God knows our names. He truly does.
Many times we feel like God, the father of all creation, creator of the universe and all things, is a distant God. Perhaps we think he’s off somewhere, looming above the heavens, looking down on us Impersonally.
But that’s not true at all. Countless scriptures tell us that our God is a personal God, someone who takes care of and pride in us.
In Isaiah 43:1, God says, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine” (NIV).
In John 10:3, we’re told that our gatekeeper, Jesus, “calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”
As Psalm 139:1-5 explains so poetically;
“You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.”
And further in that same psalm, it says:
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (Psalm 139:13-14).
Even sending his son, Jesus Christ, to die for us wasn’t an impersonal sacrifice that occurred for humanity in the most general sense. Jesus’s was personal. We are meant to understand in the depths of our being that Jesus Christ died from me personally, and for you personally, as well as for all humanity generally. What a gift!
It’s hard for me as a human to comprehend that, because I’m not God. It’s hard for me to understand how someone can love me so personally yet have that same deep love for everyone else.
But he does.
God’s love knows no bounds. His love is bigger than we can imagine or even begin to comprehend.
So yes, hearing a friend or acquaintance—or even my Alexa device—say my name is nice and feels good. But I can only imagine how good it will feel one day to stand before my Lord and hear him say, “Welcome home, Jessica, my daughter.”
How do you feel about this? Have you had an experience when someone called you by name and it was such a comfort? Do you struggle to understand that God loves you with a deeply personal and intimate love? I’d love for you to share in the comments below.
Have you read my newest novel, Tangled Roots? I hope you’ll head over to Amazon today. It’s available as an ebook, paperback, and audiobook. While it’s book two in the Dahlia series, you don’t need to have read book one, The Memory Garden, for it to make sense; it stands on its own. (But I’d love if you’d read both!)
And if I can pray for you, or you want to talk further about your struggles, I hope you’ll reach out and let me know. God bless you.
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