I can't believe it's that time of year again! This is the eleventh year of pre-Christmas blogging and the challenge is to continue to find something new to say about the wonders of the Nativity. But of course the fantastic thing about the Holy Spirit is that He is constantly able to reveal more of the Father and the Son to us in the words and stories we know so very well. Every year around the start of November I start to mildly panic about what Im going to say ( which is really incredibly silly because I know fine well what I should be doing is starting to pray rather than starting to panic! 😀 ) . In the past I have quite often just written about what God is saying to me on the day Im writing, but this year I think I might take a different tack and spend the next four weeks looking at the names of Jesus.
The Bible gives Jesus over 150 different titles - so we won't get through all of them. But over the coming weeks of festive madness and stress (especially the economic and political chaos which seems to be trying to strangle the life out of us all this year) focusing our thoughts for a few minutes each day on the person, characteristics and nature of our Saviour can only do us good and bring us blessing.
So perhaps today we should start by thinking about the importance of names. Giving something or someone a name is incredibly important. The very first thing God told the very first person to do was to give everything a name. Have you ever wondered why He did that? Why was it important for Adam to name the animals? How long do you think it took him? The Bible verses in Gen 2: 19 and 20 tell us that God brought all the animals and birds to Adam to see what he would name them. We read that in a second and move on. But can you actually just imagine that??? ALL the animals and birds. And Adam had to think up a name for each and every one. There were no names to draw on. No book by David Attenborough. No dictionary or thesaurus. Just one man and his imagination. And a very very VERY long list of creatures to define. Why did God make Adam do that? It must have taken weeks. Maybe months.
If I had been Adam naming the animals I know what I'd have done. I'd have turned to God, the maker of every one of them, and asked ' So what should I call this one then?' And maybe that's what Adam did. But the Bible says that God wanted Adam to name them. It was his first job. It was important. Over to you Adam. God sits back and sees what the man created in His image is going to do.
Adam names things. Butterflies and locusts and sloths and giraffes. Thousands of species and sub species and varieties of birds and animals. Each one with a different name from the last. Why? Well, I think naming things has three purposes. Firstly it allows us to make sense of our world and enables communication about our world. ( Note : Adam had nobody to communicate with at this point and as far as he knew he was on his own and was going to be on his own forever.) Secondly, the name we give something or someone ascribes meaning to that person or thing, and thirdly when we name something we assume authority over it. ( Gen 1;26) Names are incredibly important to God. All through the Bible we see people who are named ' prophetically' - their names describing the people God has called them to be. When Adam named the birds and animals he assumed dominion over them. Because God's plan was for man to live in harmony with nature, caring for it, ruling over it responsibly and wisely just as mankind was to live in harmony with God being ruled over by Him.
Adam didnt have a name for a while. Perhaps for years. We dont really know. We know that his name means ' from the red earth'. But as far as we can tell from the Genesis story God didnt call him by his name at the start. There was no need really was there? There was God and there was one man. You dont call someone by their name when you are sitting across the table from them. You just chat. God and Adam chatted. The first time we hear God calling Adam by his name is after the fall. ' Adam, where are you?' God knew where Adam was. It was Adam who didnt know he was lost. The first time he hears his name is when he realises he is apart from his maker and is lost. Hiding. Ashamed. Guilty. Broken. Failed. Yet despite being all of those things Adam has not lost his ability to hear God. Perhaps many of us think that our sins and shortcomings disqualify us from being able to hear Him. No. Not at all. In fact, when we are at our worst is when we need to hear Him the most - and it is then that He calls our name. I think when we read the account of Adam after the fall we assume that God is cross and is shouting like an angry mother yelling for her kids to come in when they are late for their tea. But I know what it feels like to hear God call me by my name (interestingly He always calls me Caz and never Caroline 😊) and it is always a relief and a security and a peace. He knows my name and He knows where I am and what I need. When God calls Adam by his name for the first time He is saying ' my earth-made, earth-born creation, don't hide. I know where you are, I know you are lost, you need me. Come home'
So, God gave Adam a name, Adam gave everything else a name and the rest, as they say, is history. 😁
Tomorrow we shall embark on an advent meander through the names of Jesus and see what we can discover about who He is and why His name is the name above all names.
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