I learned to sign my name from my father. Poor motor control gave me a shaky childhood scrawl that embarrassed me. I would see Dad’s name on documents around the house and was awed by the beauty of his signature. His “H” uncurled from it’s initial upstroke into a long roller-coaster plunge and then shot up again with a flourish making the point and angles of a star.
The initial letter “H” of our family name as inscribed by my father was the star of Bethlehem. I recognized it from my story books as a connection to Jesus.
I studied Dad’s signature and copied it over and over until my hand knew the habit of the “H” set ablaze into a star. This became the symbol of my identity as the son of my father. Dad’s signature on a contract to build a house or pay my church school tuition meant the contract would be fulfilled according to his word. I learned to honor the commitments to which I affixed my signature.
Our signatures are unique and personal to us as the essential expression of our names. When my Dad signed a contract to build a house, take out a loan, or to pay my church school tuition, he was obligating himself to fulfill the contract. He taught me to only sign my name to a commitment if I was prepared to complete it.
Jesus’ name means “Savior” (Matt 1:20-21). Jesus’ signature became the cross on which he was crucified for our salvation. He emblazoned the Cross on our lives as what Brennan Manning calls, “the signature of Jesus.” Manning writes:
“We are disciples only as long as we stand in the shadow of the cross… The Master said, ‘He who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Lutheran martyr, caught the meaning of this when he wrote: “When Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die.’We have no reason or right to choose another way than the way God chose in Jesus Christ. The cross is both the symbol of our salvation and the pattern of our lives. . .
In April 1944, a year before his death , while imprisoned in a concentration camp in Flossenberg, Germany, Bonhoeffer wrote: ‘What is bothering me incessantly is the question of what Christianity really is, or indeed what Christ really is for us today.’That is the question each of us must spell out for himself. Who is Jesus? What does discipleship today involve? Everything else is a distraction. The Jesus of my journey is the crucified one. The sign of his lordship is the Cross and the Cross alone. It is the signature of the risen one. The glorified Christ is identifiable with the historical Jesus of Nazareth only as the Man of the Cross. (The Signature of Jesus [Sisters, OR: Multnomah Press, 1996], p. 36, 39).
The empty cross symbolizes Jesus’ fulfillment of his commitment to save us. Jesus’ name conveys the power of God to save us.
When my son, Andrew, was two-years-old, he was belted into his car seat as I was driving down the 91 Freeway through Riverside. I was listening to KSGN, the local Christian FM radio station, on the car stereo. A song was playing that I’d never heard before, “He’s As Close As The Mention of His Name.”
His presence can be found;
He’s as close as the mention of His name.
There is never any distance
between my Lord and me;
He’s as close as the mention of His name.
*
He’s as close as the mention of His name,
Jesus, Jesus.
He’s as close as the mention of His name,
Jesus, Jesus.
*
In the very hour of struggle,
so many times I’ve found
He’s as close as the mention of His name.
Just to breathe the name of Jesus
can turn everything around
He’s as close as the mention of His name.
*
He’s as close as the mention of His name,
Jesus, Jesus.
He’s as close as the mention of His name,
Jesus, Jesus.
(Gordon Jenson, (c)1978, New Spring Publishing, Inc.)
“Jesus” — if you have no other prayer than to utter the name “Jesus” in moments of distress, grief or darkness, it will be enough. The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus; for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt 1:20-21).
Call on the name of Jesus! The Apostle Peter proclaimed, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Jesus is life and love, grace and truth, holiness and salvation personified (1 Cor 1:30).
Jesus and all the transforming tenderness and power of God is as close as the mention of his name. “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom 10:13). This is the Good News of this or any other season.
“O taste and see that the Lord is good. Happy are those who take refuge in him” (Ps. 34:8).
Under the mercy of Christ,
Kent
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Please note that the content and viewpoints of Mr. Hansen are his own and are not necessarily those of the C.S. Lewis Foundation. We have not edited his writing in any substantial way and have permission from him to post his content.
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Kent Hansen is a Christian attorney, author and speaker. He practices corporate law and is the managing attorney of the firm of Clayson, Mann, Yaeger & Hansen in Corona, California. Kent also serves as the general counsel of Loma Linda University and Medical Center in Loma Linda, California.
Finding God’s grace revealed in the ordinary experiences of life, spiritual renewal in Christ and prayer are Kent’s passions. He has written two books, Grace at 30,000 Feet and Other Unexpected Places published by Review & Herald in 2002 and Cleansing Fire, Healing Streams: Experiencing God’s Love Through Prayer, published by Pacific Press in spring 2007. Many of his stories and essays about God’s encompassing love have been published in magazines and journals. Kent is often found on the hiking trails of the southern California mountains, following major league baseball, playing the piano or writing his weekly email devotional, “A Word of Grace for Your Monday” that is read by men and women from Alaska to Zimbabwe.