Shakespeare famously asked, “What’s in a name?”
It’s a good question.
I propose that a name holds weight like an old steamer trunk put ashore a hundred years ago. What’s inside? It could be forced open with a crowbar, but it would be so much better to find the key. And the key belongs to the owner. Just like a name, the significance of the steamer trunk lies in the contents of its space, the folded garments in the drawers, the jewelry and accessories carefully packed within. Find the owner, find the key. Find the key, find the power in the name.
Names matter. What we call something, calls something from the thing we call. Confused?
Adam, the man in the garden, went to naming right away:
“Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name” (Genesis 2:19 MEV).
It remains a sacred duty and delight for humanity to name the animals, the discoveries, the inventions, and best of all, the children. What is the essence of this act? Identification. And when we name a thing which is yet without calling, we fulfill part of our purpose in the Imago Dei (made in the imag e of God), because God named everything into existence.
“God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Gen 1:3 MEV).
With God, names and action co-exist. We see God create from nothing, ex nihil, and we too hold power to create thoughts, beliefs, and seeds of the future or remembrances of the past when we name. Even non-animate objects can receive names and declare reflections of glory.
In I Samuel 23, when King Saul unjustly pursues David in the wilderness of Maon, “Saul went on this side of the mountain and David and his men on that side of the mountain. And David hurried to get away from Saul…” But Saul was miraculously called away because the Philistines were invading the land. “Therefore, they called (or named) that place the Rock of Escape" (v. 27).
Naming this rock (just a rock!), declared a sign of God’s character in the act of rescuing David from certain capture, and the story of the name paints a picture of God’s protection. He is like a mountain between us and the enemy of our souls, our Rock of Escape.
I repeat, names matter.
But Shakespeare insists, What’s in a name?
Potential.
But how can the potential be released?
By speaking the name.
Very well, but what is the name?
Ah! Here lies the key… in the hand of the Owner.
The Owner’s name? Well, His name is an entire story unfolding which we won’t have the final answer to until we are old enough to hear it. But in one chapter of the story, we can read about when He handed the key to a young couple. First, he whispered it to the humble mama in a garden, then to his daddy in a dream. They listened, and when He arrived they called His name Jesus.
That name holds every garment bag, every jewel, every necessary item for the trip. The key placed in our hand? Faith.