Friday, September 19, 2025
This devotion pairs with this weekend’s Lutheran Hour sermon, which can be found at lhm.org.
Numbers 6:23b-27 – “Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, ‘The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.’ So shall they put My Name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them” [says the LORD].
When I was 11, for Christmas my parents gave me and my older brother new book bags—canvas briefcase-style backpacks with a shoulder strap. And on each bag, our full names were embroidered, stitched in white lettering: first name, last name, and middle initial. It was not the gift we wanted. We wanted a Nintendo. We ended up getting one of those later, which caused a lot of excitement at first. But in a year or two, it was outdated and soon after, stopped working. The bags were more durable and made a better story. They also made us stand out. Not for any cool points. They were briefcases, after all. “Our dad is in the military,” we’d explain, sheepishly at first, “and he went ‘TDY’—that stands for “temporary duty”—he’s an executive officer for a four-star general, and they did a trip overseas, and our dad got these bags for us there. He had our name put on them and everything.”
The Bible tells how God became our Father, not because He needed us, but because He decided we were worth having. He wanted to give us His Name. God—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in community and conversation, overflowing with the eternal joy of simply being together, God created us, claimed us, and stood ready to do all the things to make us want to live up to His Name. But just a few pages into the story, we got caught up in trying make a name for ourselves, doing what we thought was needed—posturing, performing, manipulating. So, God sent His Son, Jesus, to save us, to call us back to where we belong. But when Jesus came, He wasn’t what we wanted. We turned on Him, had Him crucified. Ashamed, we scattered like sheep and tried to salvage what little reputation we thought we had left. God stayed committed. The Father raised His Son from the dead. He showed us that, to Him, we are still sons and daughters worth having. Jesus rose to give us God’s Name.
I speak to you today as someone from that family claimed and named by Jesus, God’s Son. I’m a Christian. That’s my people. That’s my family. Years ago, some Jesus-followers, my parents included, baptized me. As Jesus commanded, so they baptized me in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. They put God’s Name on me.
The best part about our embroidered briefcase backpacks, for me and my brother, was that dad had one just like it, and every day, he carried it to work with him—same embroidering, same family name. When someone puts their name on you, it means they’ve claimed you. They decided you were worth having. God wants this for you. In Baptism, He stitches you into the fabric of His life and carries you with Him every day. He gives you His Name, to trust in, to call on, stand on, and by His grace, to live up to.
WE PRAY: Dear Father, help me never be ashamed of our family Name. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Rev. Dr. Michael Zeigler, Speaker for The Lutheran Hour.
Reflection Questions: