Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned…. I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. – Isaiah 43.1-3
Not until the twentieth century did Americans become particular how they spelled their names. When Johann Steinbrecher arrived from Prussia at the ports in Philadelphia in 1753, it would only be another generation before his last name was changed by his children to Stonebraker. German immigrants of the 18th century were usually pretty quick to make their names sound “English.” Muller became Miller, Klein became Kline and so forth.
It wasn’t just the owner of a name that might have changed a spelling, either. Sometimes a clerk in an immigration office or a census taker standing on the front porch of a farmhouse spelled out a name how it sounded to his ears. So until the early decades of the last century, it didn’t seem to matter how a name was spelled as long as somebody got counted for something and it was close. These days, we are quick to correct misspellings of our name. But it has not always been so.
Those who work on their family history (as I do) get used to this historical ambivalence. You have to look for variants in spelling all the time. Because if you don’t account for all the ways a name might be spelled, you’ll miss a connection. And that is really what you’re looking for after all – connections. It’s the bloodline connections you’re really after, more than any particular spelling. You want to know who belongs to whom and who brought you to where you are today.
In the middle of the sixth century BC, the people of Israel had fallen on hard times. Israel had long ceased to be a nation. Judah was languishing in exile. Even Babylon itself – where the Jews had been living for years – was on the cusp of being overtaken by Cyrus, the upstart King of Persia. The future looked bleak and the faithful of God’s people wondered who they belonged to. They tried to remember they belonged to God, but it didn’t feel like it.
In the midst of their despair the prophet Isaiah wrote encouraging words to them. He told the people that neither the waters of rivers nor the flames of fires would harm them. God was still God, their creator and their redeemer. He would bring them home. God would care for his people because they belonged to him, they carried his name and he was not going to forget them. His words were: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. (43.1)
It would not be long before the people were, in fact, returned to Jerusalem. That God knew their “name” was the people’s connection to God. He had not forgotten them even though they lived, for a while, far from home.
God always knows where we are and how we are doing, too. It does not matter how far from “home” we are. Whether sickness or family discord, financial strains or even our own sins, his love is what connects us to him. His name is Love and we are his family. He will bring us home.
I have called you by name; you are mine. – Is. 43.1.
– KDS
Thoughts Along the Way 