December 19, 2014
Memory Lane
My address book is old and
over the years I make changes by putting a big “X” through the old entry and writing
a new entry. Consequently, every year when I send out Christmas cards I’m
reminded of deaths, marriages, divorces, changing residences, and friends with
whom I’ve lost communication. It’s often a bitter sweet walk down memory lane. As
believers our names are written in the Book of Life and it gives me pause to
think of the memories that are attached to our names. “He who overcomes will,
like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of
life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels” (Rev3:5
NIV).
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Gail;
-----My first name is a winner’s crown; my last name is red; I have no idea what my middle name is. But really, who cares? In our days, names are labels given for whatever reasons, sometimes in honor of loved ones, like my grandson is named Theodore Steven Schmitz, so that Teddy would be his known name because I am Teddy Bear at home, and of course, his middle name is straight up mine. Double honor! Cool. Other names are for more hidden reasons; I’ve heard of a Sky, a Meadow, a Daisy, and a Pearl; I’ve known a River, a Star, a Rose, a Candy, and an Avery. We don’t seek a lot of meaning in names. But the ancients did.
-----The Bible is full of prophetic meaning in them. Adam is from an ancient Semitic root meaning Dirt and used for Man. Methuselah meant “It shall come when he dies.” Peleg meant division, and the earth was divided in Peleg’s day. From Jacob, the supplanter, to Jesus, the savior, the concept of “name” to the ancients bore reference to character, thus “His name will be called ‘Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace,’” (Isa 9:6). And so He is wonderfully being.
-----I have not pondered the “blotting out” thing to an unchallengeable conclusion. I think it may not have one. But the “name in the book” thing is really interesting, especially seeing that our names have been there since before the foundation of the earth (Rev 13:8.) I don’t wonder so much how they’re spelled in it, or how they might sound when spoken. But I’m guessing they might not at all sound like they do now. For when we step into the blissful eternity of His kingdom accomplished, “[Jesus] will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone which no one knows except him who receives it.” (Rev 2:17c) That means either, the names in the Book of Life are these new names, and nobody else but you know to whom they apply, or that these new names are completely privatized matters, and I’m registered in His blessed book as the same old boring “Steve.”
-----Of course, they are completely privatized matters, because that’s what God’s Word said about them, “…name…which no one knows except him who receives it.” However, that doesn’t work too well. If no one knows the name but you, then no one can use it but you. I didn’t know God to do such meaningless things as give out useless names. Or are they useless?
-----I tend to think God is excluded from that “no one” who doesn’t know the name. For Him to not know the name would be a limitation. And He can not be limited (although the existence of Hell presents a limitation, a state of being in which He will not participate, observe, or acknowledge after it is cast away.) Presently I am pondering this name to possibly be the meaning and substance of our inner character and personality no one else can reach except what of it we‘ve deliberately shared, but through which we most privately relate to God in a unique and eternal way. I was relieved the first time it struck me that this new name rather implied an area of personal privacy within our souls even in heaven. Then the fact that a new name is written for Jesus, as well, that no one knows but Him makes me feel we are pretty related to the Almighty, born of the species in which He participated, existing in heaven in the same with Him, and likewise being named there in the manner He is named there. Cool. I’ll want some of that.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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