Are Names really boring? I suppose they can be.

I have a tragic time remembering peoples’ names.

But, a name means everything. It’s a person’s identity..

It’s their individuality and uniqueness.

But Names can be so boring. Look at the Bible.

What a drag those long lists of names are.

They sit there as Genealogical speed bumps to the literary flow of the narrative

But all these names reveal God to us.

God loves Names.

He has infinite volumes of names in His perfect kingdom.

He’s designed trillions of individuals with intrinsic unique personalities.

No two people are the same.

Each person is special with their own Beauty and worth.

The cry of the liberal mind is we need to be inclusive and embrace others.

But only God is inclusive.

He has reached out to the trillions of individuals.

He knows each name and archives them.

Who names their kid Peleg, or Jokabed?

How about Methuselah ?

Weird names, but God loves them and lists them in His Book.

When Jill and I just moved to a 55 and older community.

When I walked Scarlett I’d see my elderly neighbors bent over walkers or

leaning on canes shuffling along walking their dogs. Many of those dear ones

are gone now. We’re an eclectic group of individuals.

I want to be friendly but I’m like my Scarlett. I’m socially maladjusted and I bark a lot.

In our community there are two areas, at different ends of the community, where the

mail is delivered. There’s about 100 mailboxes at each location, with over

300 plus names and addresses. In the morning I’d walk the dog to these two

locations and stare at the names and try to read each name mentioning them

to God.

I ask Jesus to do nice things for these people.

But there is a problem. I look suspicious, standing there staring at the mailboxes

Now they’ve removed all the names to protect people’s names.

There’s a fear of stollen identity

So I don’t stand there now.

I used my camera phone and photo bombed the names.

Of course I have a phone directory so I can bear their names to God that way.

But there was something more personal about the mail box interaction

I remember one time I was at a new Bible study.

I tried to copy the sign in list of names.

The group leader was upset with me because I was new to the group and people,

she said, didn’t appreciate me copying their names.

I guess we’re in scary times and we have to be sneaky to gather names to bring

to Jesus.

Really that is a great thing about Facebook and Twitter.

We get all of these names we can lift to the Lord.

He likes names. Names don’t bore Him at all.

Maybe a religious invader and viewed as an oddity.

I don’t want to disrupt people’s privacy.

But Jesus has been very forgiving, accepting and kind to me.

I’d like to be like that too.