He Knows Your Name

I was reading 3rd John last week and the final verse jumped out: “Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends, each by name.” (emphasis mine)

Isn’t it nice when someone knows your name? When you are greeted by name, or asked for by name? It displays care and concern. It means you matter.

When I was in college a group of us went two-stepping at a local hole-in-the-wall dance hall. There was one guy in the group whose name I could never remember. We had bumped into each other at a variety of events and I always had to ask him to remind me his name. I knew he was getting his feelings hurt. I knew my lack of intentionally remembering his name displayed my indifference toward him. And so when he asked me to dance that night I was ready! I had asked a friend in advance to remind me his name and I recited it over and over in my head. When we were on the dance floor he, with a hopeful smile on his face, asked if I remembered his name. “David!” I said! Immediately his face fell. He was crushed. I said the wrong name!

To this day my stomach flips at that memory. I know too well what it is like to have someone forget my name – or worse, not even try to learn it in the first place! It stings. It makes me feel inconsequential. It just hurts.

We’ve all had our names forgotten.  And we have all been the one to forget, or not take the time to learn, someone else’s name.

But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me;
    my Lord has forgotten me.”

“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
    that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.
Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;”

Isaiah 49:14-16

Try reading these verses with your name in the empty spaces:

Isaiah 49:1b “The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named me _____.”

Isaiah 49:16a “Behold, I have engraved _____ on the palms of my hands.”

Did you catch that? The Lord knew your name before you were born. Even if your parents didn’t officially choose your name until after they held you in their arms, your Maker and Redeemer had been forming you and already knew your name!

And what about that second verse? I keep wanting to type that we are “written” on his hand. But it says “engraved”. Engraving is very different than writing. Engraving something means you irrevocably change the texture. The dictionary told me it means “to impress deeply”. And it listed these words as some of the synonyms: ingrain, chisel, inscribe, etch, impress, and lodge.

That means our names aren’t written on the Lord’s hand in the washable marker I give my kids. It’s not going to wash off. It will not be forgotten. It’s etched, impressed deeply and forever.

Do you understand the implications of this?

When you pray, Jesus doesn’t to turn to the seraphim next to him and ask, “who is this again? I can’t remember her name.”

This means that the nails that pierced Jesus’ wrists were right next to my name (and yours!). His scars are a permanent reminder of how deep God’s love is for me. He suffered immensely for my sake – so that nothing could take me away from him. Not my own rebellion, selfishness, or pride. Not my arrogance or indifference. Not my desire to go my own way and be my own god.

Jesus died so that none of those sins would separate me permanently from a life with Him. God is perfect and holy.  He cannot be in the presence of my sin. And my selfishness and pride would have kept me far from God forever if Jesus hadn’t received God’s wrath and justice in my place. So the fact that Jesus went to the cross with my name engraved on his hand demands that I respond to Him.

It can not longer be just a cute saying on my Pinterest feed. “I have engraved you on the palms of my hands” deserves more than curly font on top of a flowery background. That message ought to lead me to my knees in gratitude, in repentance, in a longing for more of Jesus. More of his love. More of his truth. It ought to lead me to action, and to obedience. It ought to lead me to a willing, joyful submission to Christ’s authority over my life.

And none of that is easy! It is not easy to give up my desires, my feelings, my perspectives. It is hard to surrender my fears and anxieties. It is challenging to deny myself immediate gratification from what the world gives (cue the hours I’ve spent looking for coffee tables online this week ;).

But if my name is engraved, permanently, on the palm of my Savior’s hand, then everything changes. I am known. I am precious to him. And the things that trouble me, that keep me up at night, that cause me to burst into tears at awkward times, that leave me with a knot in my stomach, or with clenched angry fists… all of those things matter to God too. He hears my prayers (1 John 5:14). He never goes to sleep (Psalm 121:3-4). He never grows tired or weary (Isaiah 40:28). Instead Jesus is at the right hand of the Father constantly interceding on my behalf (Hebrews 7:24-25).

“Grant her peace. Give her rest. Clothe her in self control. Fill her heart with joy and thanksgiving. Give Marissa a deeper knowledge of my love for her today.” Those are the words I imagine Jesus confidently proclaiming to the Father on my behalf and in answer to my prayers.

If you truly believe that like I do, doesn’t that make you long to draw closer to Jesus? To give him your whole life? To lay your dearest treasures at his feet?

One of my dearest treasures is getting ready for her final round of chemo this week. At least that is our prayer… for Jesus, who has Alice’s name engraved on his palm, to use this modern medicine to completely heal her of this cancer forever. I could put all my trust in the doctors, who don’t call me by name. Or I can put all my trust in Jesus who has my name engraved on the palm of his hand. God is using those doctors to do mighty things and to bring healing and a taste of God’s redeeming work on earth (and we greatly appreciate our doctors and nurses!). But it is God who cares the most about us. It is God who knows us and who is deserving of my faith, my submission, my praise, and my obedience, and all my trust.

Jesus is the only one who can heal my little girl. And if it is his will… if it would display his holiness the way he desires, then he will do it. What God wants, is always what is done.

So go to Jesus today. Run, stumble, or crawl. Seek his face. If you don’t believe, ask him for faith. If you do believe, ask him to keep transforming you. When your name is etched onto his hands he’s not going to let you go.

He knows your name!

Love, m

Psalm 139:14 “I praise you, for I, ______, am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”

Matthew 10:30 “But even the hairs on _____ head are all numbered.”

Jeremiah 18:5-6 “Then the word of the Lord came to me: ⁶ “O ______, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O _______.

Zephaniah 3:17 “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over _____ with gladness; he will quiet _____ by his love; he will exult over _____ with loud singing.”