“Slovak Prince is over there by the primroses, and Helen Collingwood is to the left of the sour cherry tree. Edith Wolford and Agatha Christie are nearby, in front of the tree.”
No, we weren’t having a garden party. These are a few of the residents of the garden; all irises.
Many a garden visitor wonders how I keep up with them all. First; I’ve been known to forget one or two. Second, they are my treasured standbys in the flower beds, so I’m interested enough to call them by name.
I even call my tomatoes by name. “Green Zebra” tomatoes or “Black Krim,” I watch them carefully to see which ones perform better or which are the better tasting tomatoes.
This is so significant when we think of the spiritual sense that our own Savior knows us and calls us by name!
“But the one who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep listen to his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out” (John 10:2-3, NASB).
So, Jesus is involved in “name calling?” I’ve been called some pretty bad names over the years, but whatever my “given” name will be, that’s fine by me. I do love the name I was given when I was born, and have had to fight hard to get people to use it instead of the nickname I inherited from my Aunt Christine; not that I dislike the nickname at all.
But Jesus reserves the right to call me whatever he wishes! We are told we will get a new name, and this possibly could be just a figure of speech (Revelation 2:17). Maybe it’s going to be “Forgiven Christine” or “Redeemed Christine.”
Knowing and using a name makes it personal. Oh, how I wish I were better at remembering people’s names! Don’t you just feel really good when somebody important remembers YOUR name?
And what KIND of name does Jesus call me? Not something too descriptive and negative like “the fat gardener.” I use descriptive names to notate areas of the garden for my record keeping. “The dove arbor” is understood to be where the doves like to nest, for instance. Some descriptors are not as sweet sounding; “The dead peach tree area is one. “Me No See, You No Go” is another. We borrowed that last name from a map in Jamaica.
Nope, it’s not THAT kind of name-calling. You may have had a “pet name” used for you by someone who loved you, and I suspect the name Jesus uses for us will make those sweet monikers sound awful in comparison! Our hearts will melt at the sound of his calling our individual names!
“Blessed” is a good generic name. We can hang on to this for the time being.
“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world”’ (Matthew 25:34).