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Feb 28, 2024 18:30pm

Known and Loved

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“At 5’4″, point guard, number 32, Yalanda Young!”

There was something spectacular about hearing your name called over the sound system. People cheered as you made your way through the tunnel of teammates and high-fives.

But I wasn’t 5’4″.

First of all, why did they include that? Is it to sound intimidating to include our size? Because how would 5’4″ seem intimidating? If we’re going to lie about it, why not really make me look intimidating?

I’m about 5’2″ and maybe a half in there somewhere.

Even though they knew my name, they didn’t truly know me.

I wasn’t even known by my real name in my first year of college. When the application asked if we went by a nickname, I wrote down what my dad calls me. I had no clue I would forever be known to my teammates and the folks at CRC as Loni Young.

When I worked at the TV station, my name came across the bottom of the screen. People began to recognize me and would call out my name in the store, the restaurant, or the gas station. The two worlds blurred, and I wasn’t sure who I knew or didn’t know. I always tried to acknowledge every person as if we had known each other all our lives. But truthfully, none of them really knew me.

John 1:40-42

“One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.
41 He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.
42 And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.”

Jesus had never met Simon Peter, yet He knew him. Not just that he was a fisherman, Jesus knew him for more than what he did. Not only that, he was Andrew’s brother. Jesus knew him as his own person. And not just for who he was then but for who he would be in the future. When he met Simon, Jesus changed his name to reflect that.

Cephas is Aramaic; in Greek, it’s Peter, which means “rock.” As we learn more about Peter throughout scripture, who made rash decisions, was fueled and led by his temper, and would deny Jesus when persecution began to rise, the last thing we would think about this man was that he was rock solid.

But Jesus knew. He knew who Peter would be and immediately called him by his new name.

Jesus knows you.

He knows all of your past, all of your present, all of your future.

He knows YOU.

And the moment you meet Him, he gives you a new name. One that shows you are deeply known and loved. He calls you His child.

Jesus knows you, and He still loves you. So much that He died in your place.

We are given a new name…

Forgiven

Redeemed

Beloved

Friend

Daughter

Son

Of the King!

Psalm 139:1-18

“You have searched me, LORD, and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise, you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.”