He Knows My Name

As I mentioned in last week's post, I have been doing some purging of my belongings, trying to simplify my life a little.  Though I plan to live to a very ripe old age, I don't want to leave too much clutter for my children to sort through when I'm gone.

One thing I ran across in my sorting was a yearbook from a school where I taught about 12 years ago.  It's the only yearbook I have from any of the schools where I have worked.  In deciding whether to keep it, I took a look back through the pages to see which students I remembered.  I am a resource room teacher, so I didn't have a classroom of my own students but worked with small groups of every grade level through the day. Evidently, sometime in the past, I had placed a check mark beside the pictures of the students with whom I had worked.

As I looked at those faces from over a decade ago, I smiled at some as I remembered a specific interaction with them or a trait they had that I recalled, such as the little boy who fell asleep so much at school that I had to start having him sit on the floor to work with me so he wouldn't put his head down on the desk and start snoring!  Wondering where life had taken some of these kiddos, I did what everyone does these days when they are looking for someone - I typed their names into the search bar on Facebook!

When I knew these students they were in kindergarten through fifth grade, so 12 years for them meant their entire school career and the beginning of their adult life.  Many of their profiles showed evidence of continuing their education after high school, starting careers, developing relationships and in at least one case, having a child.

What was interesting about my search for them is that some were easy to find. Their name was unique enough that there weren't pages and pages of people with the same name.  Many had their city listed and it was in the same area of the school where I had known them.  Of course, some of them may not even be Facebook users. Others, however, got lost in the ordinariness of their name and without a context of location, I could not pinpoint which person with that name was my former student.

Have you ever "googled" your own name?  In my case, there is a Jan Ellis who was a famous South African rugby player and another who is an actor.  Ironically, there are many women with the name Jan Ellis who are also teachers.  Others are writers, lawyers, and financial planners.  There is even a dessert called Jan Ellis Pudding!

With all those folks coming up as search results for Jan Ellis, someone who was looking for me might have a difficult time determining just which one was me, but God knows exactly which Jan Ellis I am.  I don't get lost in His mind in the multitude of others who share my name.  He knows the number of the very hairs on my head.  

Revelation 2:17 says,  “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone, a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.” 

Bible scholars don't all agree about the meaning of this passage, but many list several cultural uses of a white stone.  One was the use of a white stone by the member of a jury to cast a vote for acquittal - a judgment of being innocent of the charges.  Another use of the stone was as a ticket for admission to a festival. Both of those explanations have some deep spiritual significance, but it's that new name that is most interesting to me. There are also differing opinions about the nature of that name, but I believe that God has a unique, identifying name for us that represents our transformation and the events of our journey in Him.  We will instantly identify with and understand that name and all that it means. No one else will "know" the way that we "know" all that the name encompasses because they didn't live our story. 

At any rate, for now, I do know that He knows me better than I know myself.  He knows where I was then, where I am now, and what my future holds.  Though I'm just one in a vast number of all the human beings who have ever lived on this earth, he still knows me and values me as if I was the only person on this earth and He places that same love and value on you.  Don't underestimate the capacity of this amazing God to differentiate between you and the billions of others who are in His heart.  He knows your name!