Called by Name

I like to say I have 12 offices to make it sound like I really am a big shot. But then I say my offices are at Panera in Brecksville, Panera in Solon, Panera in Hudson, etc. A lot of people do their work at these coffee shops.

This past week, I was at my distant office in New Albany down by Columbus. I am on the board of a company there and had to kill a few hours before my meetings in Columbus in the afternoon. It was around lunchtime so I went an ordered lunch and they give you this little buzzer tool that you put on your table for them to find you and give you your food.  I went off to the bathroom and when I came back, the young man said "I put your food on your table Dan". My immediate thought was first "how did he know my name". But then I remember that I paid with a credit card and he obviously looked at the receipt. It's not like I am famous or anything. But nevertheless I was impressed that he called me by name.

Fast forward an hour or so and I finished my meal. I then went up to the counter and my friend was now behind the counter. He says to me "what can I get for you Dan?". Again, he calls me by name. I told him how impressed I was that he remembered my name and called me by name. He then asked me where I was from and we actually had a conversation.

I compare that experience to one where you put your name in for a reservation in a restaurant and when they are ready to seat you, they yell out "Dan, table for two!". Or where we are in a gathering and we have a name tag like the one above to try to start a conversation. My friend called me by name as an expression of personal connection not just as a way to identify me.

As I pondered that throughout the week, I was reminded that God does indeed call us individually by name. This same God who constructed the universe, who has much bigger issues to contend with than me actually knows me more intimately than I know myself and calls me by name.

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars which You have ordained; what is man that you take though of him, and the son of man that you care for him. (Psalm 8:3-4)

O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thoughts from afar ( Psalm 139:1-2)

“To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out. “When he puts forth all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. “And a stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” (John 10:3-5)

My Panera friends nice attempt at a personal connection was well appreciated because it reminded me that my God knows me well and He calls me by name.