What's in a Name?

A few days late for Valentine’s Day…

Last Fall, I went with a friend and our children to visit our old college.  As part of our visit, she had arranged to meet up with an English professor from whom we’d both taken classes.  After a brief visit with him, we made our way down the Humanities Office hallway.  It was a familiar place that brought back many memories from so many years ago.  I walked slowly, reading the names on the doors to see if there were any other professors still there that I recognized; my friend and her children ran on ahead.  As I reached the end of the hall, I made brief eye contact with a professor that I’d had for a few classes.  I smiled, but continued walking, assuming he wouldn’t remember me all these 12 years later.  But just as I passed him, he called out, his finger in the air, obviously trying to remember my name.  He was struggling, so I helped him out, “Tiffany.”  Immediately, he responded with my maiden name.  We talked for just a minute or two, I introduced him to my daughter, and then I was on my way again.  But for the rest of the day, I found myself reveling in the fact that he had remembered me, and not only remembered me, but remembered my name.  

        As I was trying to think about what to write for Valentine’s Day, this story came to mind.  Don’t we all want to be remembered on Valentine’s Day?  Think about all those years in grade school, exchanging valentines with friends and classmates.  No one wants to get left out, and even more, we all want a valentine with our name on the front.  There’s nothing special about a blank envelope, no matter how bulging it is with candy hearts.   Without a name on the front, it holds no meaning.  The significance of names was something Jesus knew and didn’t take lightly.  A name to Jesus seemed to signify a person’s character, a person’s true heart.  That’s why, sometimes, when people completely turned their lives around, he gave them a new name.  Simon, meaning “shifting sand” became Peter, “a stone”.  Saul, “requested one” became Paul, “humble.”  But He doesn’t always change names, sometimes He just calls people by name and reminds them who they were really meant to be.  In my Friday morning Bible study, we recently read the story of Zacchaeus.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with the story, Zacchaeus was a tax collector who was in the habit of cheating people to make himself rich.  No one liked him, for good reason.  But when Jesus came through town, He walked right up to Zacchaeus, who had climbed a tree in the hopes of catching a glimpse of Jesus as He passed by, and called him by name.  This may seem insignificant to most of us, other than the fact that Jesus knew his name, but I have a feeling that is was very significant for Zacchaeus.  The name Zacchaeus means “pure.”  Now Zacchaeus’ actions up until this point were anything but pure; he certainly wasn’t living up to his name.  But I bet there was something about the way Jesus said his name.  He had this way of seeing straight through to a person’s heart, of seeing them for who they were meant to be.  When He called Zacchaeus out of that tree by name, I think Zacchaeus felt the weight of who Jesus was calling him to be and was filled with the hope that he could really be “Pure.”

        What if I did the same thing?  What if, when I send my husband off to work in the morning, or when I put his dirty socks in the laundry, I don’t just call him Dave, but “Beloved; Greatly Loved”?  What if, as I’m asking Ruthie to pick up her toys or remember her manners, I call her “Faithful Companion; Friend”?  Am I training her up to be that, or to just do what she’s told?  When I call my friends on the phone, I might be talking to “Blessed One” or “Helper of Humanity.”  How might I treat them differently?  How might my attitude change toward those that I love?  And how might the affirmation of hearing one’s name rightly spoken, of attaching true meaning to something so personal, affect those with whom I come into contact?  A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, this is true, but would anyone take the time to smell a rose if we called it a skunk cabbage?  Jesus called people by name, and loved them for who they truly were.  He still does.  

This Valentine’s Day, whether you received a valentine or not, know that the God who made your heart also knows your name.  And as you hear your name spoken, I pray your heart hears the voice of the One who knows you and calls you by that name.  And when He calls, “I pray that you… may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”  ~Ephesians 3:17-19