Time For God: Day 11

Focus: Psalm 124:8
Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

Reflect:
Perhaps all children will sometime taste the terror of being lost. Who can bear to see a lost child in the mall? Think back. Replay your own event. Separated from a parent, your fearful eyes dart around. Your small heart bangs like a slamming door. Silently, you cry out, “Mommy, Daddy! Help me!” Helpless feet stand welded to an icy floor. In a fraught instant, nobody else can calm you. Other voices cannot melt your fear.

Instinctually, you call the name of one that you most love. Only one person counts as a trustworthy support in every crisis. One person alone is your symbol of security, your emergency responder. One alone can rescue you with strong and selfless love.

As you call out for that one, love will run toward you; love never lets you go. Only love like that can save you from your self-sabotaging carelessness, folly, and rebellion. Christians whisper that One’s name. He is Jesus. You can fully rest in Love’s redeeming Name. Hearts yearn to worship Him. He sees you from afar; His relentless love pursues you. He lifts your head and sets you on your Pilgrim path.

God’s Holy Name is so revered that Orthodox Jews will never utter it. They refer to Him, instead, as Hashem (literally, Name). Even that word is shortened to the initial letter Hey (H). Originally, Hey was drawn as a pictograph. Later it became a letter. In Modern Hebrew, the word hey means behold. The pictograph perfectly illustrates its meaning. It shows a man with raised arms, peering up into an awesome sight.

Hey can also mean breath or sigh. God’s Name unites His breath to our responsive worship sigh. What a beautiful reality! A further meaning of Hey is revelation or reveal. It echoes God’s command to direct others to his mercy and amazing grace.

On Good Friday, Jesus-followers point a waiting world to the mystery of the cross. On Easter Saturday, we turn our eyes toward the joy of Resurrection Day. We bless the highest Name by affirming, “Jesus is Lord!” We look upward to His soon return.

Consider:
In a time of waiting, how might you join those first disciples awaiting Resurrection power? Like others once gathered in an Upper Room will you await the Holy Spirit’s fresh anointing? How can you share God’s Good News with others whom you love?

Pray:
Lord, in the shadows of this Waiting Time I seek your empowering love. Come fill me, once again. Grant me your words set in the framework of your love. Enable me to offer hope and your most precious gift of life to those who are most dear to me yet dearer far to you. For your glory, and for their blessing, I pray. Amen.