It could happen to any father.  He had two sons and the older, Davie, came in from play looking very serious.  He was only six years old at the time.  Mark, who was three, was right behind him.  The father was watching the evening news when David stood right in front of him.  He could sense the boy was nervous and wondered if there was something wrong.  He spoke rather quietly when he said, "Daddy, I need to talk to you."  "Okay Davie, what's on your mind?"  He said, "I'm a big boy now, right?"  "You sure are.  Tell me what's on your mind."  He said, "Daddy, I don't want you to call me Davie anymore, I want you to call me Dave, and I don't want to call you Daddy, just Dad."

          Having said this, he relaxed a little.  The father smiled at him with the proudest smile and said, "That will be fine, Dave.  I would like to call you Dave or maybe David, and I look forward to you calling me Dad.  Just don't call me 'the old man,' okay?"  He said in a very strong voice, "You bet!  Can I go back out and play now, Dad?"  As he left, the younger son Mark came over close and said, "But I still want to call you Daddy."  "I'm so glad you do!" said the father.  For the next few days every time David had anything to say, he would begin it with "Dad".  Even if he wanted to know what they were having for supper, he'd ask, "Dad, what are we having for dinner?"  It didn't take Mark long to follow suit.  The father could barely keep the smile off his face!  His wife would turn her head to smile.

          David died as a young man of cancer.  The night before he died, as the father left the room, he said, "I love you Davie."  To which the young man responded with loving laughter, "I love you too, Daddy."  Those were the last words they ever spoke to each other.

          They say talk is cheap, that our world is full of words.  Yet some of them are moving and powerful.  Words assault our ears every waking moment.  Words are everywhere - magazines, movies, stores and songs.  Words describe and name things.  Words sell and words sing.  They influence our thoughts.  A billion words pour into our world every day and fade away, being forgotten in an instant.

          But it's not so with God's words.  His words are indivisible from their meaning.  When God speaks words, something happens.  He said "Let there be..." and there was!  God's words are a source of power and direction.  They are alive and working, like a tiny mustard seed, hidden but growing, becoming a great new plant.

          Our world is also filled with names, mostly meaningless today.  It used to be different.  They named him Smith or Carpenter by what he did.  Or they called him Sawyer if he cut wood or Miller if he ground wheat or Mason if he worked in stone or Johnson if he was the son of John.  Behind most names there was a unique meaning, something it stood for, something he or she did in life or where they lived, like Mary, mother of God, or Jesus of Nazareth.

          But today it's different.  We name our children on the basis of how they sound or what is popular.  Or else Grandpa John or cousin Charles had that name and we loved those people so we named our children after them.

          Most often we give our children a "cute" or popular name that is current and runs like a river through each generation, so that the same name turns up by thousands in the roll calls of our elementary schools.  And then decades from now our nursing homes will be filled with persons named Michael or Brittany or Kaitlyn.

          It was not so in the era of Isaiah.  The giving of a name in the Old Testament was closely tied with the person named.  In most instances the name given by the Hebrew father had a certain meaning.  He merely applied a word to that person and that became his child's name.

          And so a father named his son, Benjamin, "Son of the Right Hand" or Elijah, "Jehovah is God" or Elizabeth, "God brings Good Fortune".  Thus when Mary named her son Yeshua (Jesus), it was because He would be the Savior.  Naming a child then was not merely a wish or hope.  It was the sure expectation for that child in life.

          In every worship service, by God's command, some present-day child of God, a pastor by name, pronounces one of the names of God upon us.  From this we learn what kind of a God it is we worship.  So He is called Lord and God, Fortress and Rock of Ages, or Good Shepherd.  He is Deliverer or Shade on My Right Hand or Bread of Life or Light of the World.  He is Immanuel ("God With Us") and Wonderful Counselor and Mighty God and Everlasting Father, and He is Prince of Peace.

          And though God has many names, still He wants to make a name for Himself among us, in 2003.  But people fear this, for we do not always trust God, or His names, or His words.  That's not our nature.  Our human nature wants to trust only in ourselves.  It's not natural to trust God, but it is necessary.

          People are afraid of God.  We fear losing our importance and so we take Christ out of Christmas.  We all want to be something good - a somebody.  No one wants to be a "no-body", a "no-thing".  We all want to be a "some-body."

          But if I want to be a somebody, does God have to fit in?  Why can't I do it by myself?  We want to do it by ourselves, but when we try, we end up a failure.  By ourselves we will resist God.  That's why we come together for worship.  Alone we always fail.

          This is because our faith is weak, or else it's faith in ourselves rather than in God.  We all want to be remembered.  We fear being forgotten.  We want to make something of ourselves - to amount to more than just another life passing by.  So we struggle to make it happen in our own feeble ways.

          But in our poor attempts apart from God, we live dangerous and destructive lives, relying on the wrongs things, running the rat race that pulls us a dozen different ways, focussing on the externals, loving things and using people, instead of the opposite.  This time of year our minds are numbed by the commercials and our relationships suffer, especially with God and even with ourselves.  This time of year it's easy to feel like we're nothing, a "no-thing."  This time of year can bring despair.

          But God does not abandon us now.  He comes back.  Week after week He returns to us with a new name - Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father - Prince of Peace, seeking to give us His blessings in a world all mixed up.  Every Sunday He pronounces that name upon us:  "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," and gives us what His name signifies:  warm love of a Father, forgiveness of the Son, and power of the Holy Spirit.

          God's name is His benediction to us.  We know Him by what He did for us and what He still does.  He lived to give us new life.  He died to take away our death.  He lives to give us real life.  In Jesus we're assured of God's blessing and protection.  Through Jesus the Father looks on us with favor and gives us His peace.

          You and I have been baptized into the name of God - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  In that baptism we became members of God's family, and this has huge implications for us!  As a human child, if my human father's hair is brown, chances are my hair will be brown, too.  And if my mother's eyes are blue, chances are my eyes will be blue.  If Dad's hands are big and his voice deep, I may have those, too.

          And thus also, if my Heavenly Father is holy and forgiving and loving and blessed, so will I be, too!  And if He is called King of kings, then I am a prince or you a princess.  Most importantly, we have a destiny beyond this world!  We are reborn into a new family, an eternal family, with a life that never ends, and a royal heredity of greatness.  The name of God pronounced over us in worship or in baptism never fades away, for it is a Word that places on us the holy Name of God.

          Christmas is a time for remembering who we are and Whose we are.  It's a time to remember what our Everlasting Father has done for us.  Let us pray:

          "Remember, O God, what You promised to us.  Remember how You made a name for Yourself in the Wilderness and in the Promised Land.  Remember the name You made for Yourself in King David and Isaiah and John the Baptist and Martha and Elizabeth.  Remember Your Son Jesus, and how He gave His life for us.  Remember us too, O Lord, and let Your Word come true among us.  Make a name for Yourself through how we live and serve and love.  In the precious name of Jesus, amen.

Copyright © 2002 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.