Show some ID please.

Any time I do anything that is official that requires credentials I think about how important my name is to me.  I have one of those families that is well known in my community so when I tell people my name I can see them processing all that they know about my family's history.  My name alone can get me welcomed into places where others are turned away.  I sometimes get the benefit of the doubt instead of the accusing stares when uncomfortable situations arise.  The Bible says that a good name is more desirable than riches, and I thank God that my family has had a good reputation.  So what's in a name...quite a bit.  I wonder if God predestined me to be my name.  I wonder if my life would be different if I had a different name.  Either way my name serves me well.  Several times in the Bible God changed people's names to identify them with the purpose or promise that he had for them. He essentially changed their identities, and this changed the way that these people did things.  Abraham and Sarah had to leave their own country. When we become Christians we get a heavenly identification to go along with our earthly ones, and if we allow God to do his perfect will in our lives then our earthly identity transforms to become congruent with our heavenly one.  What we do is transformed by the name that God gives us,and in that our very image is transformed. Some people don't even need me to tell them my name because I look like my family.  My look tells them some of what they want to know about me because my face reminds them of another face which is labeled by the name. The same should be with our heavenly heritage.  People shouldn't even need to ask if we are Christians because we will look like Christ the more time we spend with him.  We become citizens of the Kingdom Culture, and born again members of the family of God through Christ.  There are two different analogies that the Bible uses to illustrate this relationship, marriage and adoption. In St. John chapter 2 John the Baptist (notice the naming) called the body of believers the Bride and Jesus the Bridegroom.  In Romans chapter 8 Paul says that we have received the spirit of adoption and that the spirit bears witness of us that we are the children of God.  God makes a point of labeling us as his for everyone to see, and with each identification comes a purpose and a qualification.  God has identified each of us with a purpose for us to fulfill and has justified us for that work.  God ordains us and gives us security clearance for the work that he has proposed to us.  Not only do we get justification, but we also have perks because Jesus has given us his name to do great works with. So we are back to names again.  The entire Christian identity is based on one name, Jesus.