Living Under a Name: Starting the Year with Jesus

 

The world begins the new year with lists. Goals. Resolutions. Predictions. We try to measure time as if we could control it, as if we could master what is coming. The church begins differently. Quietly. Almost stubbornly. We begin not with plans, but with a name.

Eight days after his birth, a child is carried into the light of the law and given the name spoken over him before he ever took a breath: Jesus. Before he teaches, before he heals, before he is followed or rejected, he is named. And the church insists that this is where every year should begin—not with what we hope to become, but with who God has already given to us.

A Blessing That Holds

In Numbers, God gives Israel a blessing:

"The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace."

The words are gentle, almost like a lullaby. But there is something deeper here: God places his own name upon the people. To live under God’s blessing is to live held, claimed, and protected. It does not remove uncertainty, but it removes abandonment. The year ahead may be unknown, but it will not be godless.

Small Under the Stars, Known by God

Psalm 8 pulls our gaze upward: the vastness of the night sky reminds us how small and fragile we are. And yet, even in our smallness, we are known. The One who stretched out the heavens notices us. God does not remain distant. God comes near—and stays.

This is the wonder of the Holy Name. The God whose glory fills the skies chooses to enter time, to be named, to be fully human. Eternity steps into days and hours. The infinite meets the fragile.

Salvation in a Name

Luke tells us that Jesus receives his name on the day he is circumcised. This is not just a ritual detail. The Savior does not hover above human life; he enters it fully. He submits to the law, bears its mark in his body. Salvation begins not with escape, but with presence. The name Jesus—"The Lord saves"—is written in flesh before it is ever proclaimed in power.

Paul reminds us that because Jesus enters fully into our condition, we are given a new place in God’s household. We are no longer slaves. We are children, heirs who can call God Abba. The labels we carry—capable, broken, responsible, tired—are not final. God speaks a deeper name over us: beloved child.

Beginning Again

The story ends quietly. The shepherds return to their fields. Mary treasures these things in her heart. Jesus grows. And the Holy Name works slowly in ordinary days, in patience, in faithfulness, in the moments when nothing seems to happen.

This year, start not with panic or pressure. Start with blessing. Step into it with God’s face turned toward you. Carry a name that saves. Walk as a child who belongs. And let that be enough to begin again.

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