Known by Name

There is a difference between being recognised and being known. A shopkeeper may recognise your face; a friend knows your name, your story, the things you don’t say out loud.

In the garden on the first Easter morning, Mary Magdalene mistook the risen Jesus for the gardener. It was not his face that opened her eyes. It was his voice saying her name.

Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.

John 20:16 (KJV)

Called by name

This is not a new idea in the Bible. Long before, through the prophet Isaiah, God spoke to his people in the same personal way:

Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.

Isaiah 43:1 (KJV)

Jesus described himself as a shepherd who “calleth his own sheep by name” (John 10:3). To be a friend of God is to be personally known: not a number in a crowd, but a name on his lips.

Face to face

Of Moses, Scripture says something remarkable:

And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.

Exodus 33:11 (KJV)

Friendship goes both ways. God knows us, and he invites us to know him: to speak honestly, to listen, to spend time in his company.

For reflection

• Do you think of God as someone who knows you by name?
• What helps you to “speak to him as a friend”?