Beloved Is Your Name
Table Talk
Setting the Table
You are welcome here. Come just as you are, bringing whatever is on your heart today. Take a few moments and allow yourself to just be. Take a couple deep breaths, grab yourself a cup of coffee, light a candle, do something that brings you comfort. Allow yourself to be present in this moment.
Consider the way a painter, while painting, can only see a small portion of what is being created, but when standing from a distance can see how the greater work of art could not exist without that small piece.
As names have power, words have power. Words can light fires in minds, and words can wring tears from the hardest hearts.
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind
It is true that those we meet can change us, sometimes so profoundly that we are not the same afterwards, even unto our names.
― Yann Martel, Life of Pi
Genesis 32
Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, ‘Let me go, for the day is breaking.’ But Jacob said, ‘I will not let you go, unless you bless me.’ So he said to him, ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Jacob.’ Then the man said, ‘You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.’ Then Jacob asked him, ‘Please tell me your name.’ But he said, ‘Why is it that you ask my name?’ And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ‘For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.’
Food for Thought
When I learned I was pregnant for the first time, I immediately started thinking of possible names for my child. Gifting our son with a name that tied him to his larger family, as well as the larger faith story, felt important. It took some time, but we eventually settled on a name that satisfied both.
The act of naming a child is different family to family. There are so many naming traditions from cultures and communities around the world. Children are named for relatives as a way of carrying on a legacy. Children are gifted names that are intended to guide the development, path, and personality of that life. Children are blessed with names that reflect how or when a child was born into the world.
When Isaac and Rebekah name their sons Esau and Jacob, it is just after the twins are born. They name the first Esau, meaning hairy or rough, because he was covered with hair. The second son is born holding onto Esau’s heels – literally – and so they name him “Jacob,” which could mean “to follow behind” or could also mean “trickster.” Jacob spends his life living fully into his name.
When we meet Jacob in this story, he is on the run from his trickster past when he finds himself in a full-on, middle-of-the-night wrestling match with God. As they wrestle, God asks Jacob to reveal his name. Exhausted but unrelenting, he responds, “My name is Jacob.”
This one line - “My name is Jacob” - is not simply an admission but is an open confession of all that Jacob has done up to that point. I am Jacob the con, the trickster, the hustler. I am the one who stole from and cheated my brother. I am the Jacob who deceived my father for my inheritance. I am the Jacob who hustled my father-in-law out of wealth. I am the Jacob who, even to this night, has been looking for the easy way out. We have to wonder - was Jacob wrestling only God, or was he also wrestling with a past that he could not escape - a name that had for so long defined him - the fear that he was beyond redemption.
In what ways might we be wrestling with a past, a culture, a name, an addiction, our failures, and all that has us believing we, too, are beyond redemption?
When Jacob confesses his name to God - he fully discloses all he is to God. And though prepared to receive the judgement or punishment he has long feared, he instead is met with divine grace. God gives Jacob a new name, “Israel” – a name that connects him to the fuller God story happening around and even through him – a name through which he can see himself more fully and graciously – a name gifted to him through the redemption and love of the God who has embraced him in this moment.
The story of Jacob is our story too! It is a gift of redemption to us all. This story does not let us forget that we are never outside the reach of God’s extravagant love. This story calls us to see ourselves honestly in a way that we might be changed, redeemed, and renewed by God’s grace – and it begs us to know more fully our connection to the God story happening around and even through us, in soul and body and name.
If you ask my oldest his name, he will tell you without hesitation the name that he shares with a great-grandmother he will only know through family stories. The name that ties him to my favorite writer of the Jesus story. The name we wrote on his Kindergarten registration, the name his friends call him on the playground, and the name I say in full when I’m at my wits end.
But when we tuck him in at night, the name we repeat to him with his prayers is Beloved.
Beloved was gifted to him long before we knew we had a little one to name.
Beloved is the blessing I hope he clings to when he is at his worst and when he is at his best.
Beloved reminds him he is never outside the reach of God’s extravagant love.
Beloved calls him to see honestly the ways he is still being shaped by God’s ever-present grace.
Beloved connects him undeniably to the fuller God story happening around and through him. As it does for us all.
Beloved is his name – and it is your name, too.
What would it look like for us to know more fully our connection to the God story happening around and even through us. Maybe it’s sitting with a friend while listening to their journey of redemption. Maybe it’s sharing your own journey with someone who is at a similar crossroads to one you have faced. Maybe it is just being present.
Take a few moments to free draw (or free write). You can use a scrap piece of paper or a digital sketch pad. Try not to focus on the end result, but instead on how each marking plays a part of a larger work of art.
Blessing
Loving God, we are thankful that long before we drew breath you called us Beloved. You remind us that we are never outside the reach of your extravagant love. You call us to see ourselves honestly in a way that we might be changed, redeemed, and renewed by grace.
A little Table Talk for your table...
Have you had a moment where you were prepared for judgment or punishment, but instead were met with grace?
How can you see that experience playing into the larger narrative of your story?
How can we shift the larger narratives of our communities by being that grace in the world for others?
Try taking it to the Kids Table...
Talk with your kids about their names and where their names come from. If they go by a nickname, tell them how that came to be.
Discuss who they are in the eyes of God (redeemed, forgiven, beloved).
Draw a picture with your kids (of anything) - as you draw, discuss how each piece is important to the final picture, even the mistakes.