I am always impressed when someone remembers my name. Some people seem to have a gift for calling people by name or they work very hard to keep names and faces straight – which is perhaps more impressive than someone who has a good memory. If I know that someone values me enough to work at remembering my name, I am impressed and certainly feel warm toward that person.
In my personal quiet time with God, I am reading the Gospel according to Matthew. It begins with a list of names. It is the genealogy of Jesus. When I first read that list of names years ago, I remember feeling quite bored. In older versions of the Bible it was this person begat that person who begat another person who begat…and it seemed to go on without end. It did end, though, with Jesus.
One day, it occurred to me that these were real people – people who might otherwise be forgotten except that God chose to work through them to accomplish His purpose and He recorded their names. God knew their names – the names of people who were ancestors of Jesus.
Then I was reminded that if God knows their name, He knows my name. This holy, awesome, all powerful God, is personal enough to know my name. Now and then, in those quiet times with Him he whispers my name and I am reminded of an incredible privilege of a relationship with Him.
