Snapshots

The familiar crinkle of time-worn pages. Centuries of ancestors gazing back at you from carefully crafted pages, their stories largely forgotten, but their photos providing a sense of connection and a glimpse into their lives. Formal photographs, posed for clarity and aesthetics, positioned carefully alongside candid snapshots, with their wildly varied settings, facial expressions, and props. Just like these images draw us into family photo albums, sparking memories and questions of long ago days, the names of God provided for us in the Bible are meant to help us connect with Him, to paint a picture of His identity, to spark our imaginations and cause us to run to Him with questions about the grand story He has been weaving throughout time. Some of the names and descriptions of God in the Bible are formal, original language names, provided to give us the "big picture" framework of God's nature, like the formal photographs in an album. Others are playful and unexpected, descriptions that vary slightly based on which Bible translation you study, and reveal the delightfully imaginative side of God, like the candid snapshots in a family photo album. The latter are the focus of this book, a devotional look at some of the names of God and the joy of knowing Him personally.