Today Is Going to Be a Good DayChikamu

Today is going to be a good day because even when we feel unseen, unnoticed, and unimportant to other people, we can take comfort and joy in knowing that God not only sees us, but he knows us by name.

Whenever a young couple finds out that they are expecting a new child, minds immediately start exploring options for names. Bookstores have numerous books offering trending baby names, the significance of names, and the meaning behind them. A name is important because that’s one of the single biggest identifiers when interacting with others.

When my youngest son went off to college, we visited him on parents’ weekend, eager to see his new surroundings and meet his new friends. I was a bit taken aback when he began to introduce us to the other students on his dorm hall, and they referred to him by his middle name. He thought it was fun, and embraced the moniker, even though as his parent I’ve struggled to call him anything but what I’ve called him since birth.

God is a very personal, intimate God. There is nothing more personal about us than our name. When someone knows our name, they are familiar with us. In our day-to-day lives, we all have a tendency to write important things down that we don’t want to forget. In high school, it might have been the phone number of someone we had an eye for. As adults, we may write down our grocery list, or the errands we need to complete on our way home from work. If it’s important, we write it down.

God is so familiar with us that he knows not just our name, but the number of hairs on our heads. And because we are so important to him, he has tattooed us on the palm of his hands, where we can never be forgotten.

So, the next time we feel unnoticed or unseen, we only need to remember that we never escape God’s notice. He sees you. He loves you. He wants to have a relationship with you. He calls you by name.

Father, thank you that you love your children so much that you not only know us by name, but you have written our name on the palm of your hand, never to be forgotten. In this world, it’s easy to feel forgotten or unseen, so help us to remember that with you we are fully seen, known, and loved. In Jesus’s name, Amen.