He Knows Your Nameنموونە

He Knows Your Name

I found myself in a room yesterday where I was surrounded by impressive people. We were all wearing name tags to be friendly and spur on conversation, but as I slapped on a bright smile and ventured into the waters of making small talk, I found myself feeling as though most people were looking over my shoulder rather than taking any interest in my name written in cursive. It’s in moments like this that questions lodged deep within my heart seem to come to the surface. The questions sound like this: Does anyone really see me? Does my life make any sort of impact? Does anyone know my name?

I’ve discovered that as these questions try to take up space, hope is found by simply opening God’s Word to stories of brave women who are nameless and yet completely known by Jesus. These women could have blended in or been swept away in their own despair, but Jesus saw them, stopped for them, and encountered them with His transformative presence.

The story of the woman with the issue of blood is one such story, and it’s fairly well known as a tale of a tenacious woman who pushed her way through a bustling crowd to receive her healing from Jesus. But beyond her healing, I’m stopped in my tracks when I read about Jesus stopping the crowds and making space for this overlooked and scandalous woman. She was a woman who had many labels at this time: sick, isolated, unwanted, alone, poor, and desperate, just to name a few. The world had named her unimportant, but Jesus stopped the masses to make it clear He was exchanging that worthless label for one of His own! She was a woman known for her issue, but during His brief time with her, He exchanged her issue for identity. He healed the issue, but He also called her daughter.

We can get so focused on our issue or the labels of society that we forget the truth- that the name that matters most is always the one that comes from His lips. What if today you took a few minutes to quiet the noise, lay down the labels, and simply ask Him, “Who do you say I am?” What might you hear?