Love Has A NameSýnishorn

Love Knows You By Name

There’s something special about a person’s name. When someone knows and remembers your name, it communicates worth. It helps you feel noticed. Important. Seen. When someone uses your name, it gives you value. Each of us have a longing inside of us to be known. To be loved. Remembering a name is the first step to knowing someone. Remembering a name is the first step to loving them.

Jesus knew people’s names, sometimes before even meeting them. Not just the names everyone else knew. Not just the names of the “public figures” verified on Instagram—the religious elite, the well-off. Instead, Jesus used the names of everyone, including those society said had no worth—prostitutes, thieves, lepers.

Jesus knows their names. Do we? Do we even want to? When we put a name with a face, they’re no longer just a face in the crowd—they’re human. No matter how much we don’t want to admit it, they have value. They have worth. We must remember that God made them. That God loves them, and we’re commanded to love them.

A name gives a person value. It’s hard to believe some people have value, isn't it? But here’s a life-changing statement for us: their lives have the same value as ours. That’s hard to believe sometimes. But it’s true. I know the world might say otherwise, even the crowds might shout something different, but Jesus doesn’t. He knows their names and often walks past the crowds of people to go have a meal at the house of the one person we struggle to love the most. He walks past the well-known names to get to the person whose name appears to be worthless.

He knows our names too.

My name.

And yours.

Day 1 Question:

Why are names so important? Why do you think knowing someone else’s name is one of the first and most important steps toward loving that person? Find out the name of one person today. Maybe it’s a new face to you, maybe it’s a person you crossed paths with many times before.