HIS NAME

You cannot imagine the joy that I have experienced as I have studied and written about these names of God. When I first started, my days were being invaded by the heartbroken sadness of far reaching sin that had attacked my extended family on multiple fronts. The consequences of unmitigated selfishness had left people I love devastated.

None of us were spared.

How could people do this?  Why would God allow it?

I ran between everyone trying to fix it, exhausting myself in the process. My soul carried their burden with every breath.  Sadness stalked me.  Fun and laughter and rest seemed like mockery of their pain.

Every morning I brought all that sorrow to the Father, pleading with Him to take it away from these people I loved.  I carried with me a long list of souls too confused to walk alone. And every day I spent hours on the phone, pouring out every tidbit of comfort and wisdom I had acquired in my own quest for answers.

Then I hit the wall. Nothing was working, no one was getting fixed as fast as I thought they should, and I no longer had the strength to run alongside them. Like a marathoner at mile 19, I wanted to quit.

That very morning I started this study of His Name.

Elohim was first- the Creator.  My burden began to lift just a little at the realization that His fingertips made the Alps and the oceans and the hummingbird outside my window.  Then I studied Child. What’s this?  God as a kid?  Running and giggling and reveling in wonder?

Maybe He would handle this catastrophe after all.  Maybe I ought to let Him instead of bossing Him around every morning as I brought my burdens to His attention.

Maybe He had a plan.

As I moved on to Immanuel, with us is God, and Strong Tower, He began to fill me up with His Presence.  The beauty of who He is overrode the ugliness of this part of my loved ones’ stories.

I began to hope again, though this time that hope took on a different definition.

The truth is, this life we live is sometimes awful.  When sin invaded human history, it brought with it horrors too horrific to handle. Sin and disease and brokenness are normal now. But that sin did not delete God.  Not by a long shot.  He is still who He ever was- the same God He was in the ancient stories of Abraham and Joshua and Abigail and Sarah.  And He’s just as unchanging today.  To me and to my family and to every human being whose world has been rocked by treachery.

But here’s the best part- He’s never going to change.

He will always be El Roi- the God who sees me.  He will forever be the Word- that continuous stream of talking to us that we are just beginning to catch on to.

And He will be who He is to us—to you, and to that circle of people you call your own.

That, my dear girls, is where hope lies... and joy, and rest, and reality.

Not that everything is going to get better.  Not even that He is working in our lives to fix us, but that He is who He is and He will be who He is to us- forever.

I hope that this study of His names has filled you as He has filled me. And if it has, would you please do something for me? Would you let all of us know what has been your favorite Name? And why?

From my heart,

Diane