10th August 2020

Apparently if you discover a new plant or animal, you have naming rights. Except there’s a convention that says, that whatever name you choose, it must be Latinized. Quaint really. The idea that the once proud Roman Empire can still lay claim to everything. Once upon a time it did. In fact, such was its reach that it once tried to lay claim to Him. In proud Roman script, it audaciously labelled His pinned corpse: IESVS NAZARENVS REX IVDÆORVM.

Christians look forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where everything is made new, and where a new system of nomenclature prevails. All former names will be annulled, and the Second Adam will exercise His naming rights. “To him who overcomes, I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God… and I will also write on him my new name.”

I wonder what that new name will be. It won’t be Lamb or Messiah or Bright Morning Star. It won’t be Word or Brother or Bread of Life. It won’t be Lord or Master or Prince of Peace. It won’t be Teacher or Rabbi or Light of the World. It will be a new name. Yet like His other titles, a name that reveals something glorious about His person and something wonderful about His love. But whatever it is, I doubt that it will be Latinized, nor written in the script of Times New Roman.

DM 10^th August 2020