“Holy is your name”

For the Hebrews of Jesus’ times, a person’s name contained in some way the sense of who the person was. It summed up and, in a sense, ‘was’ the person. To know a person’s name gave you power over him or her and so, after Jacob had wrestled” with God all night, he asked God for his name but was not given it (Gn 32:26-31).
As creatures, we can neither understand nor ever ‘know’ the infinite God, nor could we ever have the least power over the Lord. However, Jesus has revealed that the name of God is holy.’ God’s holiness is the fullness of infinite being without the least bit of the negativity that is sin.
We who know the brokenness, division and isolation of sin cannot really ‘know’ experientially the infinite goodness, love and holiness extent that we as human beings can understand, God has revealed who he is by sending his Son, his ‘Word’ to us and becoming one of us in Jesus Christ.
“The word became flesh; he lives among us and we saw his glory, the glory that he has from the father as only son of the father, full of grace and truth.” --Jn 1:14


As Jesus told Philip when he asked to see the Father, “Anyone who has seen me, has seen the father” (Jn 14:9). The first letter of John sums up very beautifully for us who God is. It is as if the author were trying to describe in one word the infinite, all powerful, almighty God; and so he wrote: “God is love…” (1 Jn 4:16).