Sticks and stones can break your bones, of course. But names
hurt worse and do more damage in the long run. Just ask anyone who grew up being called
“fatso” or “stupid.”
The truth is that nicknames reveal far more about the people
using them that the ones who get labeled. What you call other people reveals
your heart.
My dad called me “boy.” I liked it. When he said it, it was
always wrapped in affection and humor and good will. It was the last thing he
ever said to me, actually. At the end, when his cancer was far gone, and he was mostly in a
deep sleep, I walked into the bedroom. He roused himself, turned his
head toward the door, and without opening his eyes, said, “Hi, Boy.”
I was a boy, of course, only fourteen. Had he lived longer,
I don’t know if he would have called me that into my 20’s or 30’s. But I
wouldn’t have minded if he had. He was always my dad, and I was always his boy.
I admire how Jesus addressed people. Remember when the four men
brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus? A crowd blocked the doorway, so they
tore up the roof and lowered the man down. Jesus looked up at this poor fellow,
so helpless, dangling there in front of everyone. He said, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven” (Matthew
9:2).
Our Savior is so wonderful. Not only did He forgive the man's sins, but He called him “my son.” Literally, “child.” We don’t know how
old the man was. Jesus, in His human nature, was a young man. So the paralytic
may well have been older than Christ. But I bet he loved hearing Jesus call him
“child.”
Later in the same chapter another desperate and hopeless
person met Christ. A woman with a chronic issue of blood touched His robe and
was instantly healed. Undoubtedly her affliction, which had burdened her for a
dozen years, was humiliating to her. But in touching Christ’s robe, she made a
spectacle of herself and actually rendered Jesus ceremonially unclean. She must
have felt terribly exposed as she caught the attention of the crowd.
Remember
how Jesus addressed her? "Take heart, daughter;
your faith has made you well" (Matthew 9:22).
There’s
no one like our Savior.
