THANKFUL

Not every human being is God’s child. Only those who believe in Jesus and believe the work he did on the cross for their salvation—these are the ones who God gave the right to become his children—John 1:12 (King Jimmy’s Translation).

Most folks have at least one. Usually our parents tag us with an affectionate pet name. Our friends or social buddies label us with an endearing, sometimes embarrassing, moniker, that reflects our physical condition or some character trait. As a teenager, who wasn’t embarrassed when, at the worst time—usually in front of friends, our mom called us by our nickname?

How about the 6′ 6″ man called “Shorty?” Have you seen “Tiny?” Who comes to mind when we hear of “The Gipper?” Who remembers “Satchmo?” “Tricky Dickie?”

Because this is a family friendly article, I cannot print the nicknames of our politicians.

I’ve had several nickname during my life.

During my early formative years, my mother’s side of the family called me “brother.” I never knew my real name until the day I plastered Texas A&M Aggies stickers all over Mom’s Michael Kros purse. Her usually soft, angelic voice yelled “James Lee” so loud that Lazarus rose from the dead again.

Because of my stuttering, the torture of junior high school years produced cruel nicknames, which I buried deep within my subconscious for several years. Reminiscing, I see the insecurities of nearly all us kids that age resulted in hurtful words and actions. We were all just trying to survive those turbulent years.

In high school, college and into the glories of Aggieland, I learned to let go and embrace my difference speech patterns. My peers christened me “the Lockjaw”. That name stuck with me throughout my ten-year racing career and beyond.

During my Caterpillar career, “Lockjaw” transitioned from the heavy equipment / earth-moving side of Caterpillar to the Industrial Engines and Power Generation side. In the Power System Division (PSD), we installed, set up and tested emergency backup generators for hospitals, office buildings, banks, Democratic National Committee. (I made up that last one.)

The generators we set up and tested ranged from 120 volts to 13,500 volts in power. These generators produced enough current to turn you instantly into a French fry. Every generator has three “hot” phase cables—A, B, and C.

• “A” phase [color-coded brown]
• “B” phase [orange]
• “C” phase [yellow].

The ground phase is color-coded Green.

A serious problem soon arose. I’m colorblind.

Looking through my eyes, brown and green colors look identical. Lay a brown coded cable next to a green coded cable, chances are 50/50 I’ll pick the right cable. On three occasions, I mistakenly connected the hot cable, brown, to the ground connection, green. When the engine came up to speed and we closed the circuit breaker, sparks flew, breakers popped, smoke belched, bangs banged, cables flip-flopped, generators jumped, buildings shook, and technicians cried out to God. After the third incident of my brown-green dysfunction, I was banned for life from wiring cables to generators. Worst yet, my peers removed my picture from the Generator Technician Hall of Fame Museum.

My co-workers never knew what to expect when I showed up to “help.” They said working with Jimmy was exciting, thus the avatar “Mr. Excitement” originated. The name continues to thrive over two decades after my generator fireworks abruptly ended.

Did you know Jesus nicknamed some of His disciples? He dubbed his principal disciple, Simon, with “Cephas”, which means Peter or “Rock” even though the high-strung Cephas was anything but rock-solid at the time (John 1:42). He called James and John the “Sons of Thunder”. Can you say, “anger issues?” Jesus referred to a second disciple named Simon as the “Zealot” for his hot-headed, radical political views (Mark 3:17-18). The disciples were not the only ones Jesus gave nicknames.

The Lord also gives each of His followers a nickname.

Here’s the nicknames Jesus gave me: I’m Jimmy “the redeemed!” Another one he uses constantly is, Jimmy, “the secured in Christ!” Other times, he simply calls me Jimmy, “a new man,” although like Cephas, at times I act like anything but a new, regenerated man.

But Jesus calls all those who trust Him for their salvation “the redeemed!” He may call you the “grace-saved one”, or the “mercy-extended-to-one”, but you get the idea. Most important, those who trust Jesus are called “His own.” We are God’s own kids. Look in the Bible in the New Testament at John 1:12. It says “But to all who believed him and accepted him, He gave the right to become children of God.” (emphasis mine)

Jesus had a special nickname for God the Father. He called Him “Abba”. This Aramaic term of endearment is closely translated as “Daddy.” Jesus gave us permission to call our heavenly Father, Abba, too. Even though he is the God of the universe, we call him Daddy since he is our heavenly Father and we are his children. We’re always welcomed to run into his arms. This must bring a big smile to Daddy’s face.

As shocking as it may seem to some folks, not all people are God’s children. Sure, God created us all—he is our Creator—but only those who follow Jesus get the privilege to call him Daddy.

Lord, I pray we choose to follow your son, Jesus. I ask our Savior to give us nicknames like “the redeemed!” or “the secured in Christ”, or “child of God”. Thanks, Daddy, for grace-saving us and making us your own kids.

Stay close to Jesus.

Jimmy

P.S. Your humble Aggie scribe often warbles to his beloved “baby pumpkin”, Mrs. Aggie, but she claims the Mr. Excitement avatar fails to live up to its deification. (emphasis Mrs. Aggie’s)

Jimmy Eskew © 2016