Devotion for January 19, 2016

Tuesday: “The nations will see your vindication, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow” (Isaiah 62:2; NIV).

            “A new name.” When might you wish for a new name? I think of a child, in foster care for most of her life, eagerly awaiting adoption. That’s a time when you might long for a new name. That child might be eager to put behind her a life in which she is unwanted and to embrace a new life in which she is a delight and the desire of her parents’ hearts.

            I also think of those times when our reputation has been battered. Maybe we have made substantial mistakes; maybe we’re living with deep regrets; maybe it’s all innocent enough but people have decided to chirp about us in the most unflattering ways. That’s a time when a new name (in the sense of a reputation freed from its ugly past) is an object of our longing.

            The new name given to you in Baptism fulfills those desires. We receive a name as a child of God, or, as Isaiah 62 puts it, we become God’s delight. And we set aside the name of sinner, with all of its shame, and receive the name forgiven, new. Freed from a past of unwanted-ness and shame, we are given a new name and a future in which we are God’s pride and delight.