Just a Face in the Crowd?

Does Jesus even know who I am?

Have you ever wondered about that? After all, how many people have decided to follow Christ in the last 20 centuries? Millions, probably. Kind of  like when you go to work for a big company. They’re glad to have you, probably, but you don’t expect the CEO to know your name.

Of course Christ loves all people, right? Just the same, right? And if that’s the case, why would He need or want to keep them all straight? It’s enough that we know His name, but we shouldn’t expect Him to know ours, right?

Not right. Not even close. The Savior’s love and His intimate connection to His people may be mysterious, but they are not in doubt. Jesus tells us specifically and repeatedly how precious His people are to Him.

Just think: if you’re a follower of Christ, He chose you long before you chose Him. That’s what Jesus said.

You did not choose me, but I chose you... (John 15:16).

You were in the mind and heart of God long before you were born. You, specifically. Not a generic, potential group, but specific people who were known and loved before time began.

Jesus calls this group “His sheep,” and says that His sheep are the ones the Father gave Him. For example, All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out (John 6:37). In Jesus’ great prayer before He went to the cross, He speaks of “the people whom you gave me” over and over (John 17:6; cf. v. 2, 9, 24 also).

Some people find the Bible’s teaching about “predestination” controversial, even troubling. I find it comforting beyond words. This precious truth is what I come back to when a shadow falls over me and I wonder if God is still there.

I remember that He chose me before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). He decided before time that I would be His—that He would adopt me through Jesus (Ephesians 1:5). Paul’s words in Romans 8:29-30 flow over me, like water in the desert: foreknown, predestined, called, justified, glorified. So certain and secure and protected is my destiny that it is expressed as already accomplished.

I think of my Savior in prayer. Who is He praying for, there at the right hand of the Father? Everyone? Jesus said it Himself:  

I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours (John 17:9).

He made me His sheep, and set His affection upon me. Before I even knew His name, He knew mine. He drew me to Himself when I was so lost, when I was dead to Him, when I deserved only hell.

Does He know my name?

 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me (John 10:14).

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me (John 10:27).

But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine (Isaiah 43:1).