I paid my city seven dollars this morning. In return I got a metal tag to put on my friend’s collar. She is number 485. To the city she is a number. To me she is my friend. To the city she is an animal. To me she is my friend. As I put the tag on her collar this morning my mind flashed to another friend I had in Iowa. She had a number tattooed on her arm. To her Nazi capturers she was a number. To someone else she had been a wife and to her children a loving mother. Numbers are cold. Numbers identify without identifying. Sometimes I grow cold when I need to put my social security number on a form. I am reduced to a set of digits – a cipher. I like my name. My name is me. I am not a number. My dog is not a number. My Jewish friend was not a number.
I am so glad God does not keep track of us by number. The only numbers He keeps track of are the hairs on our heads. But we are names. How interesting to read in Revelation that He will someday give each of us a new name. It will be a name that truly fits who we are. But that does not mean we will discard our now names. When I meet you in heaven I will call you by the name that you are – the name you have now.
My sons are not number one and number two. They are Eric and Michael. Sometimes I call them by names we invented for them as children but one thing is for sure – they are not numbers!
Written by Roger Bothwell on March 18, 2009
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94578
rogerbothwell.org