Name Tags

"Dad," my son Elliot asked me.  "Why don't you wear your name tag around?"

I stopped collecting the dirty plates from the table and thought for a little bit.  I have a name tag that I wear at the office.  It opens the back door there and lets me get around the hospital when I visit there, but I don't wear it around my home.

Of course, there is another reason that people wear name tags.  "Elliot, you already know my name without a name tag, don't you?"  I asked him.  "And more than that, my name tag doesn't say on it 'Dad,' but 'Dr. Waldron' and you don't call me that either."

Elliot pondered this for a little while.  "I still wish you'd wear your name tag here some times," he told me.

I've never particularly liked name tags.  They are the sort of things that gets used when you are with a large group of people who you don't know and who don't really know you.  At a medical convention, a tour group, or something else along those lines you have these tags that say something like,  "Hi, my name is:  John," and allow others to pretend a level of familiarity with you that they don't really have.

It strikes me that when we come to God in prayer we don't wear name tags.  I don't typically even identify myself to Him.  God knows my name without my telling Him.  He is familiar with my struggles and my strengths and weaknesses better than I am.

More than that, God doesn't wear a name tag either.  Of course, He could.  It would say something like "God of the Universe," or "Jehovah Jireh," or something equally impressive that would let me know how important He is and how I shouldn't waste His time with trivialities.  All of that would be reasonable for Him to do, but He doesn't.

Instead, He gives me permission to call Him Abba Father and to talk as long as I want to.  Its not because of who I am, but because of who He is and His great love for me that I can come to Him in this way.

Because when there is relationship, you just don't need a name tag any more.