Somebody Will Say This For Eighty Years

It arrived in the middle of an ordinary evening and it has not left.

Somebody is going to say this word about ten times a day for eighty years.

Teachers. Friends. Somebody at a desk. A person who loves her. A doctor. A grandchild. Ten times a day, three thousand times a year, a quarter of a million times, and every single one of those goes back to a decision being made this month by two people who have never done this before.

And she has not been able to put it down since.

That is the closing subject of this whole site, and it is the right place to end, because everything else on it has been a version of this.

And I am going to answer it, but not the way she expects, because the answer is not that it matters less than she thinks.

It matters exactly as much as she thinks. Possibly more.

The answer is that she is not the first person to say it.

I have called thee by thy name

There is a sentence in Isaiah that is the foundation under this entire site, and everything else here has been walking toward it.

But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. (Isaiah 43:1, King James Version)

You are second and not first, and Isaiah 43:1 has never once made a parent the one who calls a person into being known. The Holy Spirit is the one who makes that arrive as relief rather than as theology, and the written word says I have called thee by thy name in the past tense.

Read the tense. I have called. Not: I will call once you have chosen. Not: I will honor whatever you write on the form.

The calling has happened. It is spoken over a person before that person did anything, and in that chapter before the nation had done anything but fail.

You have been carrying a first calling that was never yours to make, and Scripture puts it in the past tense before anybody chose anything. Isaiah 43 says thou art mine at the end of the sentence, and the Spirit of God is what makes that a felt thing rather than a doctrine.

What the two hundred thousand sayings actually are

Now the practical part, and it re describes the whole thing.

Those quarter of a million sayings are not a burden being loaded onto a word. They are a person being called, repeatedly, for a lifetime, by people who love her.

That is not a weight. That is an enormous kindness, and it has been read backward.

Every single one of those is somebody turning toward her. A teacher wanting her attention. A friend across a street. Somebody at a door who is glad she has arrived. That is what a name is for and it is what those two hundred thousand occasions consist of.

You are looking at a quarter of a million kindnesses, and no verse anywhere made being called by name a burden. Isaiah 43:1 uses the calling as the proof of belonging, and the Holy Spirit is what turns a number over from a weight into a warmth.

And here is the part that takes the fear out at the root.

Every one of those sayings will be an echo. The first one already happened, and it was not said by a teacher or a friend or a doctor. It was said by the God who formed her, before this month, before the list, before either of her parents thought about it.

The parents are not choosing the word that will call her into being known. They are choosing the word that people will use to echo something already said.

You are choosing an echo and not an original, and Scripture put the first calling in God's mouth and in the past tense. The Spirit of God is the one who did that calling, and Isaiah 43 says I have redeemed thee, I have called thee, thou art mine.

Say it as a blessing

So here is the assignment on this row, which is the last one on the site, and it is different from all the others.

Say the name over the child once, out loud, as a blessing rather than a decision.

Over her. Not about her. Not to a friend and not to test it and not to hear how it sounds.

Out loud, over the place where she is, in a sentence that is a blessing: this is your name, and you are already known, and you are loved here.

You are echoing something that was already said, and Isaiah 43:1 has never once left a person unnamed before their parents got there. The written word calls by name and then says thou art mine, and the Holy Spirit is present in a room where a mother says a name over a child as a blessing.

And notice what changes when it is said that way rather than tested.

A name being tested is being weighed against every other possible name, forever, and that is what has been happening since the summer.

A name spoken as a blessing is being given. And a thing given is finished, and the weighing stops, and the difference is entirely in the manner of the saying rather than in the word.

You are able to stop weighing and start giving, and Scripture puts the calling before the choosing and not after it. Isaiah 43 says fear not, and then gives the reason, and the Holy Spirit is with a woman saying a name as a blessing today.