What’s In A Name? 

   “I am who I am.’ Then he added, ‘This is what you will tell the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.”” (Ex 3: 14). 

   I have often read the Exodus story but, when reading it again recently, God’s answer of “I AM” when Moses asked His name, made me stop and consider.  What does I AM mean?  It’s not really a name and it has far more meaning than just the two words “I AM.”  It means that God is all.  He is not only I AM, but he is also I WAS, and I WILL BE.  There is no beginning and there is no end to God, He is, He always has been, and He always will be.

   Eternity is not something that we can ever understand in this lifetime.  We are bound and, in many ways, ruled by time.  We can’t fully comprehend the permanent “now” of eternity.  We see a beginning and an end to all things, but those words don’t apply to eternity.

   When we consider God, we think as humans think.  But God is beyond human understanding.  We want, like Moses, to know who God is.  But He is forever, without beginning and without end.  St. Thomas Aquinas said that God is not a being but is “BEING” itself and all else has being because of God.

   Try as we may, the full knowledge of God is and will remain a mystery in this mortal life.  God truly has no name as we think of names and that makes me wonder; will we have names in heaven?