Dear Father, We were taught that You brought all the animals to the man to see what he would name them: “and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.” Although there is more to this naming than the noun naming of things, this Scripture speaks primarily to identification and designation. There is no explicit description of how this happened, but I can infer from its Hebrew translation that Adam observed the nature of every animal and distinguished them by it. However, today I am interested in pointing out that Your very act of bringing the animals to him signified something we seldom speak about: that man was given authority not just to name things, but that by our concept of them, they are identified. This was more than just a naming ceremony; perhaps it was a prophetic demonstration of identity: “You are what I have called you to be.” In the beginning, You were intentional about bringing us into the experience of everything You created us to be. And in this regard, perhaps it means that we are responsible for the naming, identification and designation of everything that relates to us, including our situations. And so, on the eighth day, we name our children, and we name our inventions. But in a way we may not be aware of, we have been given authority beyond the noun naming of things. I've realized that our experiences often become a reflection of our concept of the situations we find ourselves in, and we are sometimes unaware that, in a way, we named them. When You watched Adam, You demonstrated that naming should be an intentional act. And sadly, whether we know it or not, we exercise this authority. Translations: Slide 1: English Slide 2: French Slide 3: Bengali Slide 4: Hindi Slide 5: Urdu Slide 6: Portuguese #LettertoGod #naming #identification #purpose #authority