What's Your Name?

One of the things I am looking forward to concerning Heaven is finding out what my name is! Revelation 2:17 says: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it."

I used to think of this name as something that God came up with after I arrived home. But, the other day, it dawned on me that He has probably had His very own name for me from the start...from even before I was born. Husbands and wives sit around and talk about future names for their children...women go around filling up notebooks full of sweet possibilities. Why should it be different with God? Except, he gets the joy of naming us before we are created WITH the full revelation of who we will be because He is the creator.

There is something special and precious about sharing something with one Being alone. No one else will know my name. Maybe it is because no one else will understand why God chose that name for me. It will become that much more sweet and priceless because my Redeemer will be the only one that will utter it. It will be a fitting name. I am sure that when he first whispers it, I will wonder why I haven't heard it before. Or maybe it will be like deja-vu, knowing that deep down in my very soul, I have heard it before.

George MacDonald explains the connection between our new name and our true identity this way: "God's name for a man must be the expression of his own idea of the man, that being whom he had in his thought when he began to make the child, and whom he kept in his thought through the long process of creation which went to realize the idea. To tell the name is to seal the success."

Oooh, I like that.

I think that when we hear our new names, it will dawn on us, "that is who I am to be!" It will reflect the part/attribute of us that was created to look the most like our God. Each of us will have a unique thing that showcases the glory of God, just like each of us will have a unique name! Just one more reason to anticipate our real home. Quite frankly, this earth feels more and more like alien-land all the time.