Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine. —Isaiah 43:1
Do you wonder by what name God calls you? I do. I have a deep conviction that my God-given name will be one that has somehow spoken to me my whole life. The thing is, I don’t have a name, at least a name that I can call my own. ‘Betty’ is a borrowed name, meant to be put on the birth certificate only temporarily until my parents who were expecting and anticipating the birth of a boy-child could finally come to some agreement about a suitable name for me. That time never came, and I have gone through life with the nickname of an attending nurse in a hospital in Atlanta.
When my son Luke and his bride Anna were told the gender of their baby girl months before her birth, they immediately and excitedly named her Stevie Irene. We all talked about Stevie for those months with great joy and anticipation. And I was sometimes overwhelmed by the amazing rightness of that gift Stevie had received from her loving parents – the gift of a name that would be her own for all her life.
We know that our Savior was given his name ‘Jesus’ by God himself. It wasn’t the name that the friends and families expected, and there was surely surprise and pushback. And we also know that Jesus received many beautiful descriptive names that we encounter in scripture. But for me, the best name to call him, the one that evokes the loving care of his father, the one that I can call on in any situation, is Jesus.
Loving God, you blessed your son with a name you chose. For us, that name is above all others, and we are overwhelmed by the love you have shown to all people by the gift of your beloved son. Help us live lives worthy of your gift. Amen.
Betty Schroeder