This past month one could almost have confused New England with the tropics.
Each afternoon the sky filled with giant cumulous clouds; lightening
flashed, thunder rumbled and torrential downpours have filled our reservoirs
to overflowing. That is amazing. All the moisture has awakened a rich
array of mushrooms and other fungi. The forest floor is decorated with red,
yellow, orange, gray and purple caps.
I found myself wishing I knew the names of all these strange wonders. Then
it occurred to me that if I knew the names I still would not know anything
about them. Names are just what some other person decided to call them.
That would tell me more about the namer than the named. I too can name
them; anything I want! It would be great fun to name one after my wife
and two others after my sons and another after my dog. The difficulty
would be communicating to others about the mushrooms that I had named. But
then I cannot think of any time I have ever had a mushroom based
conversation with anyone.
Most likely somewhere in the world there is an official mushroom naming
society just as somewhere in the universe there is someone who has a special
name for you and me. Revelation 2:17 speaks of God giving each of us a new
name. I am sure it will be a perfect match for our personality. When we,
if we tell it to others who know us, they will nod and say, “Yes, that’s
perfect. That’s you.” I’m glad God is the one giving us our new names
because I think none of us would dare to give ourselves as grand a name as
we are going to receive.
Written by Roger Bothwell on August 18, 2008
Spring of Life Ministry, 151 Old Farm Rd., Leominster, MA