WHAT'S IN A NAME? PART 2.

SCRIPTURE:The Lord says...I have called you by name; you are mine.Hold to my teaching... then you will know the truth.Finally,.. whatever is ..true..think about such things. Isaiah 43:1. John 8:31. Philippians 4:8.

In public my father called me "Rosebud"...but I did not believe him. If he had truly believed I was like a rosebud he would have treated me as a person of beauty and gentleness and cared for me with all tenderness. He would have cherished and admired me. When he called me "Sunbeam" he did not treat me as a beautiful shaft of light shining into his soul, as a fresh new day just dawning. No, he used and abused me in horrific ways. Perhaps "Sunbeam" meant that he would gratify his personal needs for a shaft of pleasure, but most certainly he was not thinking of me or my needs of personhood, growth and a need to be made to feel precious.

Yet God is so different. In the Bible God gives me countless beautiful names. My Creator, remember, was the one who made me. My parents provided the genetic structure and the environment for the tiny embryo to grow, but no, once I was born and was growing up, they did not truly and correctly PARENT me. God my maker has been my parent. In Psalm 139 it says that the Lord God created my inmost being...knit me together in my mother's womb....searched me and KNOWS me. God's thoughts about me are precious and outnumber the grains of the sand.

It is God who has treasured, nurtured, given me hope and provided human hands apart from my natural parents to help me become the person I am today. Yes, I still have hurts, problems, worries and countless issues to work through. But I am on a journey. The reason I am journeying on is because God, my creator, has given me glorious and beautiful hope and love which encourages me daily and gives me strength to carry on (despite myself at times).

To know that, I, Julie-Anne am precious to God means that he treasures me and carefully watches over me. When I was a little girl I had a teddy bear. My teddy was to me the most precious thing in all the world. I dearly loved my teddy. I knew exactly where teddy was...he was never out of my sight! Teddy went everywhere with me. I still have my teddy because to me, he was the only love object I had at that time. My love for teddy was pure and untainted. I asked for nothing in return.

I am like that with God. I am beloved as a child (or a teddy bear), and God esteems me as precious. There is no-one in all the world quite like me, and to me, there is no-one in all the world anything at all like God. Because of this it is easy and natural for me to love God in return. God demands nothing from me, yet because of that I want to give everything I have and am for God to use for good in the world.

I know all my human father's names for me. They brought me distrust, fear, illness, pain, loneliness and alienation. However, what is far more important, are God's names for me. I am my creator's child, just loaned to my earthly father in an act of trust. That trust was shattered. But as the child of my creator..that is FOREVER! And my creator truly loves me, truly knows me, and wants the very best for me at all times.

PRAYER: Wonderful creator, it is only by your might that we exist at all, and you have surrounded us with your light and love all the days of our lives. Thank you for protecting us so far on our journey through life, as painful or difficult as it may have been.It is so special to know that all your thoughts towards us are always positive, life-enriching ones to help us become the very best in life here on earth and forever. Amen.

TODAY: I am asking you to do a little Bible study today which you can come back to, add to and think about in the weeks, even years ahead. They are verses which affirm how highly God, your creator, esteems and values you. Look up the following references in your Bible. Underline them. Write them out and keep this list handy. It will encourage you greatly to look at when things are feeling grim.Learn them if you are really keen! 1 John 3:1. 1 Peter 2:9. Psalm 103. Isaiah 43:1-3. Isaiah 46:3-4. Isaiah 58:11.

Julie-Anne Wingate. Copyright 2002. All Rights reserved.