Every Name Matters

Have you ever been here? You’re powering through reading the Bible, and you get to the part. You know, the list of names. The genealogy that seems like a mile long with names you can’t even begin to pronounce. Yeah, that’s me each time I get to passages like 1st Chronicles.

Imagine this: I’m lying in bed trying to read the Bible after not being able to see straight for a week. Thanks Vertigo. I reach the day’s passage. Genealogy. “Great,” I think to myself. So, I begin my normal “read what you can and just skim the rest” when I hear that still small voice. “Every name matters.”

It stops me in my tracks. Here I am feeling sorry for myself for dealing with this medical issue and not being able to take care of myself. Here I am just powering through today’s reading when God stops me in my tracks.

Every. Name. Matters. Yep. Even those ones that you can’t pronounce. The ones from thousands of years ago that you struggle to connect meaning to. It matters. It’s all part of God’s story. Some of those names are even part of the lineage of Christ. And here we are so quick to skim through them.

The thought became more pronounced as I took my time to go back and reread every name I skimmed over. Every name matters, friend. Just like our names and our faces matter to the King. Just like our names mattered when Christ laid down his life for ours. And they matter just like ours do, day in and day out, when God inclines His ear to hear our prayers.

Every. Name. Matters