Juliet, in
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet said, "What's
in a name? That which we call a rose
by any other name would smell as sweet." I believe that I have to agree
with her; after all, if you take away my name I am still employed by AT&T,
am 6’3”, bow-legged, don’t have quite enough hair, and smell fairly good after
a shower. The only problem in getting rid of our names would be how people would
find us. For sure, looking for me someone could use the physical traits I’ve
listed and what I do for a living. Do you think someone who doesn’t already
know me could find me? There are over 6 billion people on earth but we’ve
already trimmed that down to the 300,000 who work for AT&T. You could start
using things that define who I am or what I carry in my soul; things like, he
loves kids, prays for people, is a bit of a curmudgeon, likes making people
laugh and helping them through hard times. You could start describing things I
do like; occasionally writes blogs, likes riding motorcycles, was a fair
basketball player, liked coaching. We have narrowed it down but there are still
a lot of people out there with many of those traits. Just to keep it simple and
allow folks to find me because, most of the time, I like being found because I
like people; I think that I’ll keep my name.
Over
the years I have accumulated a number of nicknames, most of them good and fun;
some, not so much. I’m sure we all are collecting them, from our families, our
friends, our work friends, teams, and any number of places and they are usually
for something we’ve done or do or say or some physical attribute that stands
out for some folks. I’ve been jotting mine down while writing this and was up
to 20 when I posted it. Some of the ones used to tease me or given to me in a
disparaging way I can live without. There is one that I earned as a less than
complementary comment on my basketball skills that I came to embrace because it
associates me with my high school basketball team that I am still proud to have
been a member of. There are two that I embrace now and love to hear. A few
weeks ago I posted a Facebook status of “More melodic than the sounds of the
harp, or uplifting than the chiming of village victory bells are the shouts of
‘Opa’ from my grandchildren when I walk into the room.” I got many likes and a
few comments on that one and it’s true, I love hearing it and it makes me feel
loved. The other one has grown over my years of youth ministry and one that
many of the kids, some now young adults, who came through the junior high group
and went to Mission Arizona use. When I hear it from these young people that I
love, pray for, believe for, and hope for, it makes me feel loved and cared
about. They call me Jer Bear.
What,
you may ask, does this have to do with Calvary’s Thread? Why, plenty of course.
We have a bible full of names for God the Father, Jesus His Son, and the Holy
Spirit. I have a list of them at my elbow in two columns, three pages long. They
are very descriptive of who God is, what he is to his people, and how he
relates to us. When we use them in our prayers, in our worship, and how we
describe Him to others, God feels loved and appreciated. We should use them
whenever we can because while He is unfathomable, they help us understand who
God is and helps us relate to Him. My
friend Courtney recently posted a Facebook status and wrote the name out “G~d”
and explained that our Jewish brothers and sisters don’t write out the whole
name out of a deep reverence for Him. However we call Him; do it reverently.
Here are just a few names for our God for your consideration:
V Alpha
and Omega, as well as the Almighty in Revelation 1:8
V Blessed
Hope in Titus 2:13
V Bread of Life in John 3:29
V Changeless
One in Malachi 3:6 and Hebrews 13:8
V Good
Shepherd in John 10:11
V Helper
in Hebrews 6:20
V King
of kings in Revelation 19:16
V I
am in John 18:6
V Great
Physician in Luke: 4:23
V Lord
of the Harvest in Matthew 9:38
V Rose
of Sharon in song of Solomon 2:1
V Our
Shelter in Psalms 61:3
This is the link I found to a nice resource for the names that I’ve used here:
Crown Him With Many Crowns
For our two brothers who will be spending a lot of
time in the Gospel of John over the next few months and those of us who will be
hearing them, I did a quick scan of this document and found that John’s Gospel
accounts for 29 of the listings.
I think that it is worthwhile to consider all of
the names for God and even to use descriptors from our own creative source
because He is, after all, inexhaustible (I didn’t find that one on the list but
find it appropriate). Then, when we are done with this consideration, I think
that it would be worthwhile to simply empty our thoughts of all names and descriptors
to love Him as God.
