“He knows my name!” She said it with a goofy grin that can only belong to a kid who cares about what her principal thinks of her. Just a month into her first year at the middle school, with a couple of club meetings under her belt, she walked down the hallway and her principal saw her, smiled her way, and said, “Hi, Lilly!”

When other kids might have cringed, fearing the wrath of authority, she was uplifted and thrilled by this one fact: He knew her name. She came home that day, boasting that in a sea of students streaming and swirling down a crowded hallway her principal had seen her, and called her name. I couldn’t help but think of God.

No volume of words can do this point justice: God knows Your Name.

I’m not sure if you are like me and need this reminder, but here it is: God sees you. 

In the cacophony of children, work, complaints, deadlines, headlines, He hears you.

He knows you. He knows. He hears your prayers, feels your struggles, and when He looks on you He smiles and calls your name. Yours. When you hope or fear you are flying under the radar, He will not overlook you. He refuses. He passionately refuses to let you slip by.

We only need look up in the midst of our messes and see His smile in the blessings around us, hear His voice in His Word and His people. His isn’t far off. He is right here. What peace is ours when we take a moment to see God seeing us.

So if we, who know where to turn for satisfying recognition, need this knowledge, how much more do our neighbors? Your witness today is an opportunity for your friend, coworker, neighbor to realize that God knows your name, and not just in a scary way. Maybe our tongue is still, but our actions resound with, “God sees you.” Maybe the shoulders we lend croon, “God knows.” Maybe our broken life will provide just the space for someone to look into our little world and see the God who boldly holds all things together, who refuses to give up.

And He really does refuse to give up on you, on me. He sees it all plainly and perfectly, but through the clutter and chaos God sees you, and He smiles.

But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
    he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
    I have called you by name, you are mine.”

Isaiah 43:1