…rejoice because your names are written in heaven. – Luke 10:20
I have several friends named Jennifer. I think I have at least five really great Jennifer friends! (Shout out to all my Jennifers!) Each one of them is a bright and shining light in her own way. You might say she each reflects a particular shade of her favorite color. Each one beautiful and unique and completely different from every other Jennifer who ever lived and who ever will. While they share a name here on earth, they won’t share this name in heaven. Whoa, crazy right?! It’s true. God will give each one of them a new name in heaven. Her name is already written there (see Luke 10:20)!
Think about that. God-willing, each one of us has a new name waiting for us in heaven. It is our own special name that God has chosen for us. It correlates to each person’s deepest identity. Your new name will match the “you” that is your innermost soul. The pure, spotless, heavenly “you” will be given “a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it” (Revelation 2:17). This is God’s name for you. It will be your name and your name alone, as unique as your soul, and precious to God.
Isaiah prophesied about Israel’s new name, but in some way it also applies to each one of us: “…you shall be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord will give” (Isaiah 62:2). One day, Jesus Himself will write this new name upon us: “I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name” (Revelation 2:17).
Take some time in prayer asking God to reveal this new name to you here and now if you would like to know it. Perhaps He will reveal it to you if it would help you become sealed and empowered in your heavenly identity here on earth. Or maybe you’d like to wait until heaven to know this new name.
Either way, know that you are, as St. Pope John Paul II said, single, unique, and unrepeatable. You were thought of from the beginning of time. You were chosen by Him. And He calls you by your name. You are His precious and beloved one. Own your belovedness and your heart will expand to see each and every person in this same true light.