Read: Revelation 2:17; Isaiah 43:1-7
I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it. (Rev. 2:17)
My older sister told me that my parents thought about naming me James. It’s weird to think that I might have gone through life as Jimmy rather than Dave. Dave is my name, it’s who I am. This version of me is flawed—don’t I know it! But the Bible says that one day I will be like Jesus himself. Of all God’s promises about the future, this is the hardest for me to imagine. I can sort of picture the new creation: new heavens, new earth, eternal life. I can’t even begin to picture the new me.
The Lord promises us a new name that will fit our new nature, written on a white stone. It sounds like a fairy tale.
“Here and there and not just in books,” writes Frederick Buechner, “we catch glimpses of a world of once upon a time and they lived happily ever after, of a world where there is a wizard to give courage and a heart, an angel with a white stone that has written on it our true and secret name, and it is so easy to dismiss it all that it is hardly worth bothering to do . . . But if . . . our glimpses of it . . . are only a dream, they are one of the most haunting and powerful dreams that the world has ever dreamed” (Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale).
The gospel is a fairy tale; just one that happens to be true. —David Bast
As you pray, give thanks for your new name.
About the Author
Rev. Dave Bast retired as the President and Broadcast Minister of Words of Hope in January 2017, after 23 years with the ministry. Prior to his ministry and work at Words of Hope, Dave served as a pastor for 18 years in congregations in the Reformed Church in America. He is the author of several devotional books. A graduate of Hope College and Western Theological Seminary, he has also studied at both the Fuller and Calvin seminaries. Dave and his wife, Betty Jo, have four children and four grandchildren. Dave enjoys reading, growing tomatoes, and avidly follows the Detroit Tigers.
