Everybody has a name

Oh for the innocence of childhood. For the unaltered friendliness and complete lack of self-consciousness. Did you know everyone has a name? Everyone cries. Every single one of us has a mother. God made us and designed us. He designed that guy who is always standing in his yard whenever we drive by. He designed the shirtless skateboarder, resting on a bench, absorbed in his ipod. He has plans for those individuals…

We walked to the park in Grandville. It’s a little bit of a trek from our home, but Tim and Sarah had bikes and the boys sometimes rode in the burley and sometimes walked. Plus Ryan was meeting us at the park. It was 82 degrees according to the church clock on the corner of Canal Street and 36th. when we strolled by. A beautiful summer day in the midst of April. Lovely. We crossed the street.

We passed the occasional biker, or walker. We all do the polite smile or nod and move on in our lives, don’t we? My three year old gave me pause. We passed a man standing in his yard. He wasn’t doing anything. Just standing there, looking around. Mark stopped and stared at him for a moment. Then he said, “Hi, what’s your name?” with a huge smile. The man smiled, “My name is Harry.” “Hello, Harry. I’m Mark. We are going to the park today.”

Now, it may be that since the van crash, we haven’t really seen too many new people, but I think it was more than that. My heart was warmed by my son’s words and as we walked away from Harry, I realized I would have never known that man’s name if Mark had not asked.

I know it’s typical three year old stuff, but I couldn’t help but think how we don’t want to involve ourselves with ‘strangers.’ We don’t really want to know their names. We just want to move on our way. I pondered this as we walked on. It was a long walk and at last, we were on the trail by the creek. Mark saw the shirtless young man from a distance. He was sitting on the bench, listening to an ipod, with a skateboard near his feet. “Who’s that?” “Oh, it’s no one we know, just some one enjoying the day…” Well, Mark stopped right in front of him, sized him up and smiled. “Hi, what’s your name?” “Jacob, “ replied the man, removing an earplug and smiling a pleasant grin I did not expect, “What’s your name?” “I am Marcus.” “That’s a nice name.” “Yup. I am going to the playground now. Goodbye.” I did the polite smile thing and we walked on.

I think I wasn’t just humoring a small child, I was learning that we need to care about what other people’s names are. We need to have and make room in our neatly ordered lives for new conversations, even new relationships with other people God made. God created Harry and Jacob. Their parents gave them names. They have souls inside. Now, I probably won’t be introducing myself to everyone I see, but I hope to listen to God’s voice, and obey, and remember, everybody has a name.