Nicknames

Sometimes being sheltered creates issues. I remember the first time I heard the word hickey. I had no clue what the word meant. So, like a dummy, I asked. This only created more issues. Kids in my class started saying, “You don’t know what a hickey is?” I think I was in fourth grade. I said, “No.” Thus began the nickname Willi Hickey.

When I got to college my neighbor asked if anyone had ever called me “Hanke Spanky?” I answered sarcastically, “No, you are the first person to rhyme my last name with anything.”

Nicknames were important in a long line of Karl William Hankes. My grandpa grew up being called Sonny. When my dad came along he was called Fritz. And when my mom agreed to name me Karl William Hanke IV, she was particular about my nickname. I grew up being called Willi until I entered college; at that point I decided to change it to Will. 

Names are important and I am sure you have a preference of what you want to be called. I would imagine that you have had someone call you something you didn’t appreciate. It’s possible that you know someone who always calls you the wrong thing no matter how many times you correct them.

This week we talk about nicknames and how God has named each of us. No matter what the world calls us, Jesus came to rename us and claim us as His children. We call Him Lord, which indicates that He is the One who has power not only to create this world, but to re-claim it from sin. We will touch on the many names of God, along with the reminder that He has the love and power to change our names to Children of God.  Because we know that He is our Father, we rejoice in the fact that we will be with Him forever.