What’s in a name?

more than we might think… 

Our given birth names are a vital part of our identity. Parents-to-be can spend months trying to decide on a name for their future offspring, then change their minds once the children are born because it doesn’t seem to suit them.

Some names have deep meaning, cultural, historical or spiritual significance, and get proudly passed on so that future generations can retain them. 

We introduce ourselves by name. It’s an opening gambit in getting to know one another, providing potential hints to our cultural background, ethnicity, or age.

We don’t have any say or control over our name to start with, but we have the means to change it to a diminutive or alter it later on if we wish, especially if it’s a name that brings forth ridicule or judgement from others.

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Some names we get called are not friendly, familiar or fond at all. These names stem from a desire in others to demean, deride, offend, and criticise. They are arrow-sharp, piercing our insecure self-image and vulnerable hearts. 

Then there are the unwanted, character defining labels thrust upon us or those we might assign to ourselves. I’ve picked up a few along the way when my inner critic has held sway.

It can start with painful comments from our peers. Perhaps it develops earlier with a poor parental attitude of labelling and making unkind comparisons between one child and another. 

Deliberate, targeted teasing and taunts can hurt tremendously and do damage to our sensitive psyches for years. 

It’s not true that “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” as the old saying goes when it bursts forth from our lips in brave defiance while inside we are feeling crushed.

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And then there is the lure of love. The warm glow of hope, the language we desire to be fluent in. The spoken endearments we’ve been longing for, hoping to give and receive.

Love causes a softening within as our guarded hearts begin to open up like flowers positioning their petals toward the sun.

We also have holy, unconditional Love, perfectly personified in Jesus Christ as he calls us by name while he reveals and shares the heart of God with us.

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Named

I almost missed
the full significance
of being named
known, loved and seen by God
just as we all are, as Mary was

though we feel like it
we're not invisible
or overlooked
we're not passed over but seen
noticed by his holy being

this gives us hope
we can come confidently
when we need help
or anything whatsoever
God listens, hears our prayers

he meets us here
at our point of need, waiting
to intercede
to respond as only God can
it is all within his plans

a relationship
of love begins with this
with being named
and known, special to someone
just because we exist
© joylenton

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“Let everyone who can hear, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches: Everyone who is victorious shall eat of the hidden manna, the secret nourishment from heaven; and I will give to each a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one else knows except the one receiving it.” — Revelation 2:17 TLB

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I’m a twin. My given name of Joy is a diminutive of my mother’s. Her friends often called her Joy rather than Joyce, causing me to prick up my ears. 

My half-brother got round it by naming me Jo or Yoj if he wanted to be particularly annoying. Over time, I actually found it endearing. I learnt to answer to those variations of my name as different shades of me.

Though I rarely felt I could live up to being called Joy when I became a Christian because my life experiences up to that point were painful and far from joyful. 

Yet the joy was full and real as I gave my life to Christ in my late teens. And I’ve seen several glimmers of it since because holy joy isn’t dependent on our circumstances. 

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Like many of you, I’ve had unwanted labels attached to me by others—and those I gave myself—wrongly assuming they were my real identity. 

If we’re not affirmed and loved appropriately by our parents, it can take years to fully comprehend God’s unconditional love for us and accept ourselves as we really are in his loving eyes, as seen through the lens of Christ.

Yet we can rest in what Scripture says about us: we are precious, unique individuals who are deeply known, named, cherished, and dearly loved by our Father God. 

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Holy, Wholly Attentive Father,

Thank you for calling us by name. As our Creator-God, you lovingly crafted us in our mother’s womb, and have watched over us ever since. Nothing escapes your attention. 

Words are of great significance and we can become wounded by the names which people have wrongly assigned to us.

Because if we assimilate them all as truth, then we might live in light of their meaning, which misses the mark of our true identity in Christ. 

Help us, instead, to live in light of who you say we are in your Word. May the beautiful biblical words of hope, joy and encouragement spoken over us there be our markers for how we act and live in the here and now.

Amen 

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💚☕️today’s takeaway ☕️💚

Your name might have embarrassed or haunted you for years and not be what you had hoped for or wished, but you can rest in having the best name of all when God calls you his Beloved daughter or son and welcomes you with open arms. 

Thanks for reading Joy’s Sacred Echoes Substack! I’m so glad you’re here. You can subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

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