A Secret Name: Prophets of Glad Tidings

“To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.” Revelation 2:17 NASB

George MacDonald describes this white stone as that “which expresses the character, the nature, the being, and the meaning of the person who bears it. It is the man’s own symbol, his soul’s picture, in a word, the sign which belongs to him and to no one else.” It is given by God and reveals “his own idea of the man, that being whom he had in his thought when he began to make the child, and whom he kept in his thought through the long process of creation that went to realize the idea. To tell the name is to seal the success—to say, “In thee I am well pleased.”

A Unique Name and Understanding

This name, among millions of other names, is unique. “For each man not only has an individual relation to God, but each has his peculiar relation to God. He is to God a peculiar being, made after his own fashion, and that of no one else; for when he is perfected he shall receive the new name which no one else can understand. Hence he can worship God as no man else can worship him, can understand God as no man else can understand him. This or that man may understand God more, may understand God better than he, but no other man can understand God as he understands him.”

A Secret Name: An Individual Revelation

“With every man he has a secret—the secret of the new name. In every man there is a loneliness, an inner chamber of peculiar life into which God only can enter.” This is a mind-bending thought, but it gets more incredible because there is also “a chamber in God himself, into which none can enter but the one, the individual, the peculiar man, out of which chamber that man has to bring revelation and strength for his brethren. This is that for which he was made—to reveal the secret things of the Father. By his creation, then, each man is isolated with God; each, in respect of his peculiar making, can say, “my God;” each can come to him alone, and speak with him face to face, as a man speaketh with his friend.”

This changes our whole picture of what it means to be the body of Christ. For “there is no massing of men with God. When he speaks of gathered men, it is as a spiritual body, not a mass. For in a body every smallest portion is individual, and therefore capable of forming a part of the body.”

A Garden Metaphor

MacDonald makes it even clearer with a garden metaphor:

“Each of us is a distinct flower or tree in the spiritual garden of God, precious, each for his own sake, in the eyes of him who is even now making us, each of us watered and shone upon and filled with life, for the sake of his flower, his completed being, which will blossom out of him at last to the glory and pleasure of the great gardener. For each has within him a secret of the Divinity; each is growing towards the revelation of that secret to himself, and so to the full reception, according to his measure, of the divine. Every moment that he is true to his true self, some new shine of the white stone breaks on his inward eye, some fresh channel is opened upward for the coming glory of the flower, the conscious offering of his whole being in beauty to the Maker.”

Told No Story But Our Own

“Relative worth is not only unknown,” MacDonald says, “but to the children of the kingdom it is unknowable. Each esteems the other better than himself. How shall the rose, the glowing heart of the summer heats, rejoice against the snowdrop risen with hanging head from the white bosom of the snow? Both are God’s thoughts; both are dear to him; both are needful to the completeness of his earth and the revelation of himself.” It is no wonder that, in C. S. Lewis’ The Horse and His Boy, Aslan tells Aravis that “I am telling you your story, not hers. No one is told any story but their own.” God’s creation is personal, relational, and organically grown. The authentic self has no competition.

A Name We Like Best

“‘God has cared to make me for himself,’ says the victor with the white stone, ‘and has called me that which I like best; for my own name must be what I would have it, seeing it is myself. What matter whether I be called a grass of the field, or an eagle of the air? a stone to build into his temple, or a Boanerges to wield his thunder? I am his; his idea, his making; perfect in my kind, yea, perfect in his sight; full of him, revealing him, alone with him. Let him call me what he will. The name shall be precious as my life. I seek no more.’”

Prophets of Glad Tidings

“Neither will he thus be isolated from his fellows. For that we say of one, we say of all. It is as one that the man has claims amongst his fellows. Each will feel the sacredness and awe of his neighbour’s dark and silent speech with his God. Each will regard the other as a prophet, and look to him for what the Lord hath spoken. Each, as a high priest returning from his Holy of Holies, will bring from his communion some glad tidings, some gospel of truth, which, when spoken, his neighbours shall receive and understand. Each will behold in the other a marvel of revelation, a present son or daughter of the Most High, come forth from him to reveal him afresh. In God each will draw nigh to each.”

In Awe of Each Other

Since we all have wonders of such incredible value to share with each other, then how much care we should take in listening. Instead of interacting with people only for rebuttal and domination we should, as Jordan Peterson says, learn make their point of view as strong as possible instead of as stupid as possible (a straw man) so we can destroy it.

“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” – Steven R. Covey

This would bring depth and understanding to our relationships because “it would mean,” Peterson continues, “that before presenting your own point of view it would be necessary for you to really achieve the others speaker’s frame of reference—to understand his thoughts and feelings so well that you can summarize them for him. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But if you will try it you will find that it’s the most difficult thing that you’ve ever done.”

We are all individual and unique. We can find precious diamonds and true community only if we value this uniqueness—this emerging and evolving white stone—in ourselves and others.