Bedazzled By Grace

Is there any other way our limited language can express it?

Bedazzle: to dazzle thoroughly;
to lose the faculty of steady vision from the brightness of the light!


The task before me this day is the lesson for Sunday. The subject is "The Name", "the Name above all names".

Remembering that the name is the character by which one is known, marked, distinguished,
The Name of Jesus is the revelation of Him - who He is, what He has done, what He continues to do in our Now and will do in our Future. All that is staggering enough to ponder.


But reading down the list compiled from scripture for class, waiting on the printer to do its job, I'm filled with the wonder of it, filled with awe at the magnitude of That Name. And yes, it dazzles! Truly and completely. Of all the names of the great and the mighty, the kind and the loving throughout history, none can compare..not even come close.


John Newton's, this one who knew all about grace, writes in his hymn "How Sweet The Name of Jesus Sounds":

...Dear name! the rock on which I build

My shield and hiding-place,

My never-failing treasure filled

With boundless stores of grace.

Jesus! my shepherd, husband, friend,

My prophet, priest and king,

My Lord, my life, my way, my end,

Accept the praise I bring...."

Dr. Erik Routley in his Hymns and the Faith beautifully states our conclusion:

"All the other names of Jesus are the notes his grace has struck out of life. They represent all the glowing colors in the spectrum of the world's praise. But they are all gathered up in that name which is as powerful and as health-giving as the sun itself, the name of Jesus."