Robert - My Reminder of the Famous One

“O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

Psalm 8:1

Since I started this blog I have, over the past couple of years, done a blog based on the names of each of our grandchildren.  Linda has been reminding me that I have not yet done one based on the name of our youngest grandson – Robert.  Well today is the day.   Since he is named after my dad, I thought that I might simply do a blog in which I told little Robert about the man he is named after.  But then I googled the meaning of the name Robert.  What I learned is that his name means “famed, bright, shining.”  The first thing that came to mind was the song “The Famous One” by Chris Tomlin, which is based on these words from Psalm 8 - “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”  Of course “the famous One” in that song is not my grandson (hard as that might be to believe.”  “The famous One”, the one whose name is majestic in all the earth, is our Lord and God. 

Ok so what?  Well I got to thinking that, at least for Linda and I, Robert is a great reminder of or picture of the things Psalm 8 teaches us about our Lord and God.  That’s even what this Psalm says, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength…  God intends these tiny little ones to be a reminder to us of how mysterious and beyond understanding our God is.  He is literally “out of this world.”  I think of Robert’s birth a year ago… the first time we held him.  Then I look at how he has grown… learning to crawl, starting to eat real food, pulling himself up, wanting to grab everything, his reaction to hearing and seeing Nana on Facetime, his giggles when he watches his big brother or plays “peek-a-boo.”  Wow.  The majesty of God’s power… His strength and wisdom on display for us in a tiny baby.  Our God is out of this world. He is “the Famous One.” 

The Psalmist goes on - When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,      what is man that you are mindful of him,  and the son of man that you care for him?  Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.   That is definitely the “fame” I see “shining” through Robert.  You know this is why Stephen Hawkins, the famous physicist wouldn’t believe in God. He couldn’t understand why, with the vastness of the universe, an Almighty God would be interested in what happens to us on this one tiny little planet.  After all within the context of the universe our little planet is less than one little grain of sand.  You and I and Robert are even less significant than that.  Yet He is mindful of us.  “For God so loved the world (for God so loved Robert, you and me) that He gave His one and only Son, that whosever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”    I can’t help but think of little Robert’s baptism day about a year ago.  That day, the God of the heavens and earth took note of tiny little Robert.  The real Famous One reached down through water and the word to adopt Robert as His own child.  The Majestic God knew Roberts name, called him by name to be God’s own.  God’s love in this little guy’s life is a great reminder that God is mindful of each and every one of us.  No matter how insignificant you and I are in the Universe, because of Jesus, “the Famous One” you are significant to the one who made the heavens and the earth.

So do you have a “Robert” or “Roberts” in your life – people big or small that remind you of how out of this world… how famous and majestic and loving our God is?  Think about that today. Take note of your “Roberts.”  Little Robert is one of mine – a reminder to me of “the Famous One,” Jesus who loves even me.  Amen.