“He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voices.”
(John 10: 3 – 4)
There is something about hearing your own name, even in a crowded room with lots of conversations taking place, if you hear someone mention your name, it triggers a reaction in your brain and you find yourself immediately looking in the direction from which you heard it. Our family is at present being entertained by our little, fourteen, month old, granddaughter, who is trying hard to speak and loves to point to one of us and attempt to say our names. Of course, we all jump in to help her as the satisfaction of even hearing a somewhat garbled version brings us great delight and she is rewarded with lots of smiles in return.
Our personal name distinguishes us from others. It gives us identity. Many years ago, there was a sitcom called, “Cheers” which was a name of a popular pub and the series was always begun with the theme song about why it was so popular and one of the reasons was contained in this lyric, “Where everyone knows my name.”
We all long to be recognised!
Jesus calls himself that Good Shepherd who knows all his sheep by name;
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me.” (John 10:14)
When we allow Jesus to be our shepherd and accept his offer to guide us and lead us through our everyday life, we will never feel that we are not known, we will never feel again that we are just a part of the nameless crowd.
When the Lord calls us by name, it is not the fact of just our names he knows, he knows absolutely everything about us. Out in the world, there are very few people we let know, perhaps none, of our personal thoughts, our fears, our insecurity, even our hopes and desires. David writes a beautiful Psalm (Psalm 139), about this topic in which he revels in the fact that the Heavenly Father knows all there is to know about him and he can relax, knowing the Lord loves him just as he is, he doesn’t need to pretend to be anybody else.
“O, Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise, you perceive my thoughts from afar.” (Psalm 139: 1 – 2)
Our thoughts are the most private part of our personalities and we only divulge them to those we totally trust, the Prophets also knew that to know that the Lord knew every thought they had was liberating, not something that they had to conceal.
“Yet you know me, O Lord; you see me and test my thoughts about you.” (Jeremiah 12: 3)
We can have the same confidence about our relationship with the Lord, knowing he accepts us just as we are when he calls us his own
God Speaking 
Jo M seems to have endorsed your message so well Jo I can’t think of anything to add, except thank you Jo Y.’
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: Mary Penfold. on September 26, 2017
at 21:16
As usual Jo your words have made me think. When I “give my name” to someone I am giving them the right to use it and am opening myself to them to some extent – which is why I am offended when someone presumes to address me by my Christian name without being invited to do so. I know it is a generational thing – but it does remind me of just what you are saying. Our names are our identity – and one day God will call us home by them.
Thank you Jo.
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: Jo Mercer on September 26, 2017
at 16:56
Lovely Mum. Thanks for continuing to write these every week.
LikeLiked by 1 person
By: dextj on September 26, 2017
at 11:46