MARCH 2023
"He Knows My Name"
Amy Bourque
This year when I read the genealogies in 1 Chronicles at the beginning of my Lent study, I read them with a different lens. I tried to think of myself as a Jew, recently returned to Israel, with stories in my head of the “old days”, but no tangible connections. To read those lists of names, to hear the names of people in one’s family, to know that God had never forgotten them, even when they were exiled in Babylon - what joy that must have brought. How comforting to know that not only did God remember the names of his people, he even remembered their jobs, their positions in the families they represented. He is a God who knows his people intimately and desires a relationship with us, even today, just like he did with the Israelites.
I love the Old Testament; I love following the through-line from creation to Jesus. God knows my name. He knew me from the beginning of time, and he calls me by name, which is written in the Book of Life. I know these things to be true, yet I still need those reminders, just as the Israelites did so long ago. When God brought the nation of Israel across the river into the promised land after forty long years in the desert, he stopped them along the way and told them to make monuments, memorials to help them remember each step of the journey. They even built one right in the middle of the river before the priests carried the ark all the way across and the water started flowing again! These were intended to make people stop and ask, “What is that thing for? Why is it there?” and for someone who knew the answer to tell them.
The season of Lent is similar, I think. It is a time for me to stop, to slow down, to remember what God has done for me. Time to remember that he knows my name, the number of hairs on my head, my every dream, my every care. And time for me to focus on his love for me, a love so deep that he made a plan for me to be with him in eternity, at the expense of his beloved Son. Lent is a kind of long-form communion, where I confess and accept his sacrifice and let him work in my life, cleansed in the precious blood of Christ. It’s time to step away from my everyday busy-ness and spend a little more time with the God who knows my name, knows my history, knows me, and loves me just the same.
I love the Old Testament; I love following the through-line from creation to Jesus. God knows my name. He knew me from the beginning of time, and he calls me by name, which is written in the Book of Life. I know these things to be true, yet I still need those reminders, just as the Israelites did so long ago. When God brought the nation of Israel across the river into the promised land after forty long years in the desert, he stopped them along the way and told them to make monuments, memorials to help them remember each step of the journey. They even built one right in the middle of the river before the priests carried the ark all the way across and the water started flowing again! These were intended to make people stop and ask, “What is that thing for? Why is it there?” and for someone who knew the answer to tell them.
The season of Lent is similar, I think. It is a time for me to stop, to slow down, to remember what God has done for me. Time to remember that he knows my name, the number of hairs on my head, my every dream, my every care. And time for me to focus on his love for me, a love so deep that he made a plan for me to be with him in eternity, at the expense of his beloved Son. Lent is a kind of long-form communion, where I confess and accept his sacrifice and let him work in my life, cleansed in the precious blood of Christ. It’s time to step away from my everyday busy-ness and spend a little more time with the God who knows my name, knows my history, knows me, and loves me just the same.
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Amy BourqueWMCLB Secretary & WMCLB Eastern Region Co-PresidentHometown: East Hartland, CT
Home church: Bethany Lutheran Brethren Church |
