Seeing Their Face AND Knowing Their Name

So, the story is told that there was a medical class which met from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. on Tuesday evenings. The professor of the class knew that the custodian usually mopped the floors of the buildings in the evening, so he asked the custodian if he would make a point of mopping the floor of the hallway where his Tuesday evening class met, either just before 7:00 p.m. or around 10:00 p.m. This put the custodian in the hallway around the door of the classroom as the class was either about to begin or when the class was over.

Over the course of the semester, the professor was always telling the students how important it was to pay attention to the people around them, especially the people who could be considered inconsequential.

The first question on the final exam for that semester was: “What is the name of the custodian who mops the floor in the hallway where our classroom meets each Tuesday evening?” The question was worth five points on the critically important exam.

In the last blog post, I wrote about the importance of faces and seeing people’s faces. I want to follow that up by also mentioning the importance of doing our best to learn people’s names. I want to remind you that God knows your name.

Isaiah 43:1 says, “But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine.’”

It is so important when we meet people that we develop a way to remember their names. It is incredible how challenging this can be. When we meet someone, we often have so many things on our minds as we are navigating the conversation, and we don’t make it a point to remember the person’s name!

Case in point: When there are visitors to a church, many people in the church will go meet them and greet them and let them know that it is such a blessing to have them visiting the church. But five minutes later, if you went to those church members and asked them the name or names of the guests, they wouldn’t be able to remember.

Case in point: At one church where I was serving, there were four or five men who would serve as the ushers, and they would greet people as they came into the church. Initially, what I observed was that when a member would walk in, the ushers would greet them and hug them, and it was a beautiful thing. Then, when a guest would walk in, they would just hand them a bulletin.

I began to challenge them to greet the guests more warmly and to ask the guests their names. Over and over again, when a guest would attend, if I would go ask one of the ushers the name of the guest, they couldn’t remember. They did get better over time while I was there, but it was a struggle.

I believe that for churches and church members, we need to know that guests to our church are a precious gift from God. There was something that caused them to attend our church that day. How we handle each one of these gifts will determine whether God continues to send us more gifts in the future!

There may be moments when God sends someone across our path. God knows that we could minister to this person and help them. How we respond in these moments is very important to how useful we are for God and for His Kingdom.

We want to learn how to do a better job of seeing people and seeing their faces. And as we do this, we can be certain that it also becomes important that we develop a good system for learning and remembering people’s names.

Help us, Lord Jesus, so that we can be conduits of Your love and Your grace to those around us. In Jesus’ name and for His Kingdom and His glory!