Thus says the LORD, he who created you: "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine." (Isaiah 43:1)

What precious words of comfort and identity. Redemption is not a common concept today, but slaves and prisoners understood it for centuries. It is the means by which some generous person buys the freedom of one conquered in war or imprisoned for debt. Christ has redeemed me from sin and its penalty of death. I am Christ's by reason of his doing for me what I could not do for myself. He has bought me for a price, the costly price of his own death.

God also has called me by name. God has done this great work for the whole world, one person at a time. I, individually, my life, has been transferred from darkness to light, from danger to safety. I have also been given a new name, God's name, Christian.

So I am God's by right of purchase, and I am God's by change of nature. No longer tossed about by temptation and self-centeredness, I am grounded in the creator and free to live as God intended, with grace and courage and faith and joy. If this, my identity, is guaranteed by God, how is it that I so often forget who I am, and whose I am?