I Have Called You by Name

Imagination is a way of knowing. It frees us to appreciate what rational thought might not help us grasp. Here is a fantasy to help you appreciate that while humankind is powerless over sin, we are not helpless.

Imagine the kind of event that has been happening for millennia all over the world: An infant, filthy and naked, sits on the earth crying in heartbreak, raising his helpless arms and shrieking in frustration. Around him lies the wreckage of a primitive village, its thatch burned to blowing gray ashes and its blackened wood flickering and smoldering. Bodies of adult and young men, gashed, smashed, and broken, lie motionless all around the infant. He is bruised, too, the side of his head swollen yellow and purple where the marauders gave a blow they meant to kill him. They may as well have. He tries to crawl but crumbles.

The sun goes down behind the menacing hills from which the horsemen had thundered and over which they went, dragging women and children. The infant's cries go hoarse as thirst dries him out. He tries again to crawl but falls, toppling over onto the massive bruise disfiguring his forehead. He hiccups, shrieks. Acrid fumes sting his watering eyes and mouth. He gurgles in uncomprehending terror. Dark has come. The last tongues of fire flicker yellow and orange. The infant folds into himself and falls on his side, exhausted, empty. His great, ripened bruise pulses. His little body jerks in sleep.

Dreaming, or feeling truth, he knows a great hand has cradled his head, and another his body. The hands hold him firmly and raise him off the earth. He finds a vague face, hideous behind a russet crust of bloody face hair. It is real. A young man who had been left for dead was only deeply stunned. The infant feels himself held snugly against a hirsute chest. He is swung around and bounced, securely held. He sucks on a rag soaked in sweet water. He feels a great hand wipe from his face the tears and the terror. He sinks into the safe, warm chest and sleeps.

You are that child, and Christ Jesus is that warrior who was wounded to death and lives again. You could put it this way: you are a cry for help. But the fact that you sin is not the deepest truth about you. The deepest truth is that you are powerless before sin. You are powerless to overcome all the disabilities, limitations, and wrongs that fester in you because of sin and, above all, to block the inexorable approach of sin's final act, your death. You truly are as powerless as that infant to get up and heal yourself, to rise from your woundedness and the world's ruin into a mature, whole human person.

At this time, when humankind surely is most conscious of its incessant savagery, you know that God is intensely active, creating you out of concrete chaos. God creates you from nothing, as the faith teaches, which means that nothing in you could force God to call you into existence. God calls because of his love. And in his fidelity, he calls you out of the chaos of your life world to grace. How those who do not know Christ manage not to despair is hard to say. We do not despair because we know that our Redeemer lives. We are powerless, but never helpless. Our Creator has said to each one of us: "I have called you by your name, you are mine" (Isaiah 43:1).

One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand. One belonged to him and the other to the Lord.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life.

This really bothered him and he questioned the Lord about it. "Lord, You said that once I decided to follow you, You'd walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life, there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why when I needed you most you would leave me."

The Lord replied, "My precious, precious child. I love you and I would never leave you during your times of trial and suffering. When you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."

Author Unknown

If you remember nothing else from this class, I hope you will remember the story on this bookmark.

When some time in the future something really bad is happening in your life and you do not know where to turn, remember that God will always be there to carry you. Do not be afraid to call on Him.