Monday, July 23, 2012

Could Be Jellylorum

Surely every fan of T S Eliot wonders what their own three names may be if they've read this poem:


The Naming of Cats
The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
   It isn't just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
First of all, there's the name that the family use daily,
   Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James,
Such as Victor or Jonathan, George or Bill Bailey -
   All of them sensible everyday names.

There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter,
   Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames:
Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter -
   But all of them sensible everyday names.

But I tell you, a cat needs a name that's particular,
   A name that's peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can he keep his tail perpendicular,
   Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?

Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,
   Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat,
Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum -
   Names that never belong to more than one cat.

But above and beyond there's still one name left over,
   And that is the name that you never will guess;
The name that no human research can discover -
   But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.

When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
   The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
   Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:
       His ineffable effable
       Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular Name. 


    - T.S. Eliot
       (from "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats")

I think God also has a new name for each of His people - just as he renamed Sarai, Abram, Saul of Tarsus, and Simon Peter. I am so glad God knows my name: Isaiah 43:1 ~ But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel; "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine." 


This call must be by a somehow bigger or deeper name than we use here for each other, in the John 10 passage  (verse 3) we read that the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. There is a unique response to that call.


And just as when a married woman takes her husband's name as her own, somehow believers wear God's name, Jeremiah 15:16 ~ Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts.


Challenge to myself: delight in the sweetness of God's words, and in the ineffable effable effanineffable name by which He alone calls me.


No comments:

Post a Comment

Leave your bananas here, please. :)