I Have Called You By Name

Some time ago, I heard about the first day of kindergarten for a young student in California, back in the early seventies. There were so many unusual names floating around the Santa Cruz area in those days that the teachers didn’t even blink when they first met a child whose name tag read, “Fruit Stand.” The teachers thought the boy’s name was odd, but they tried to make the best of it.

“Would you like to play with the blocks, Fruit Stand?” they offered. And later, “Fruit Stand, how about a snack?” He accepted hesitantly. By the end of the day, his name didn’t seem much crazier than Moonbeam’s or Sun Ray’s.

At dismissal time, the teachers led the children out to the buses. “Fruit Stand, do you know which one is your bus?” He didn’t answer. But that wasn’t strange as he hadn’t answered them all day. Plenty of children are shy on the first day of school. The teachers had instructed the parents to write the names of their children’s bus stops on the reverse side of their name tags. The teacher simply turned over the tag. There, on the back neatly printed, was the word “Anthony.”

I actually appreciate unusual names, especially names that convey meaning or hope. But poor Anthony!

There is something important, even beautiful about being called by our real name. As a child in school when our teacher learned our name; or, at church when we were around long enough to the point that everyone knew our name, we began to feel accepted, we feel we belonged, we mattered.

In the book of Isaiah (chapter 43), God says, “I have called you by name. You are mine.”

God calls you by name. God knows you and he loves you deeply.

Let us pray: O Lord, you have searched us and known us. You discern our thoughts from far away and are acquainted with all our ways. And you love us still. Thank you for your forgiveness, your mercy, and your care, and for claiming us as your own. Give us the grace to respond with love. Amen.