I’ve always enjoyed ‘dress up’. You know, ‘pretending’ to be someone else for a while. I think that’s one of the reasons kids enjoy Halloween or Harvest parties so much during this time of year. My oldest child is nine, and starting to ‘phase out’ of the whole costume thing, which I’m completely confused by since I’m thirty-something and still like it.

On Halloween this year, we were getting ready to go to church for a little party and the oldest three hurried to complete their tricky ensemble of wizard, Darth Vader, and fairy princess. When I called my two and a half year old, Samuel, to get his Buzz Lightyear costume on, he shook his head. “No, mommie, I can’t.”

“Honey, don’t you want to dress up?” I pointed to his older siblings in their full garb. “Ben, Aaron, and Lydia dressed up. Do you want to be Buzz Lightyear?”

He furrowed his brow and looked from the costume in my hand, to my face, and back again. “Mommie, I not Buzz Wightyear, I Samuel.”

Needless to say, he dressed up as Samuel.

He does the same thing when I tell him he’s a ‘sweet boy’. He’ll say, “Mommie, I not a tweet boy, I Samuel.”

His name is very important to him. It’s who he is.

As a child of God, we’ve each been given a specific name by Him. Cool thought, huh? I think the name God’s given me has to be different than ‘Pepper’. 🙂

You are so important to God, that he gave you a name and called you out of darkness by his Holy Spirit to live as a child of the Light. Your name is very important to him.

Isaiah 43:1 states, ” But now, thus says the LORD, your Creator, O Jacob,
And He who formed you, O Israel,
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name; you are Mine!”

The entire chapter is beautiful, reminding God’s people to whom they belong. We are not some nameless creature or even a generic named animal, like ‘that’s an elephant’ or ‘that’s a wolf’. We have been given specific names. Names that have been written in the Lambs Book of Life for eternity. (Rev. 3:5, Rev. 13:8, Phil. 4:3)

Our names should be extremely important to us, because they descrive the essence of who we really are. And who are we? We are God’s chosen children, redeemed from the fire, forgiven, restored, and marked with an unfailing, neverstopping, ‘always and forever love’. Praise God!