“Just think, Eli, God knows you by name.” I couldn’t tell if he was listening. It was early. I had picked him up at 6:15 a.m. to take him to “Wildcat Baseball School,” a baseball day camp for kids at the University of Kentucky. Madi had warned me: “He’s tired and not in a good mood.” So, I didn’t bother trying to talk. We were content to listen to “positive, encouraging,” K-Love Christian radio as we traveled.
Eli was semi-snoozing as they played Francesca Battistelli’s popular song, “He Knows My Name.” I couldn’t resist breaking the silence, adding my little commentary, reminding my ten-year-old grandson that God knows him by name.
I got a hmmm and a squirm. Considering the time and circumstances, I took that as a win.
Battistelli sees her song as an anthem: “How many of us feel defined by what people say about us? But God calls us by name. His words for us are: chosen, free, forgiven, beautiful, wanted, loved. That is the only voice we should be listening to.”
I thought of Isaiah 43:1: “I have called you by name, and you are mine.”
I’ve spent much of my life trying to know God better. It’s a challenging and noble calling, not just for preachers but for every believer. We all have struggles, stumbles, victories, defeats, highs, and lows along the journey. But genuine faith prompts us to chase after the One who first chased us down. God designed us to desire Him. As Anselm of Canterbury, the Benedictine monk of the 11th century, said, “Faith seeks understanding.” When God has touched us, we want to pursue God, know God’s ways, and reach for this One who has graced us with divine love, the One ever calling us upward and inward.
Undergirding the effort is the truth that no matter what happens as we seek God, God knows us not in a generic sense but by name: God knows my true story, my failures, and flaws, my hopes and dreams.
God knows not just our sins but our successes. He draws us into those Mount of Transfiguration moments, those rare transformative encounters when God turns our lives inside out and gently folds us back in place. That’s because the eternal “I AM” knows our name.
I was streaming those thoughts as Francesca sang and Eli dozed.
And then Eli was wide awake: we were at camp where hours later, it was “rewards” time. Something prompted me to record the moment as the announcer’s voice called out the “campers of the day” over the sound system at the University of Kentucky’s baseball field. In a deep voice reverberating through the stadium, he announced, “Camper of the day: Eli Walls,” drawing out Eli’s name, mimicking introductions at a real UK baseball game.
Later, on the drive home, Eli smiled, holding my phone, replaying the event, listening to the man calling his name.
Baseball and his coaches’ approval ranks high in his life now. But baseball is mainly a summer game; even the best get forgotten in time. “Even if that coach forgets your name,” I told Eli, “God will ALWAYS remember your name,” reminding him of the song we heard earlier that morning. “He’s called your name and won’t forget who you are because you are that important to God.”
Just like that, our names will be forgotten sooner or later, whether in baseball, academics, or business. Thomas a Kempis wrote in The Imitation of Christ about the “Masters and Doctors” that were once his teachers. “Other men now sit in their seats,” he wrote, “and they are hardly ever called to mind. In their lifetime, they seemed of great account, but now no one speaks of them.” Their names are forgotten.
But there is ONE who always remembers us by name.
As Battistelli sang it: “I don’t need my name in lights/I’m famous in my Father’s eyes/Make no mistake/He knows my name.”
So, make no mistake: the One who knows you by name won’t forget it, not when baseball season’s over or graduation day has passed, or your work here is done. God will remember YOU.
Now and forever.