What Does the White Stone Say?

I enjoy books and films that make me think, that take me beyond words on a page or a plot unfolding on the screen to learn something.  It doesn't need to be a clearly defined moral like in a family sitcom or a G.I. Joe Public Service Announcement, but they prompt thoughts which open a window of the mind to draw in fresh air.  These books and films do not claim to be ultimate truth, but can at times stir up the truth we have learned and been assured of through scripture and put it to more effective personal use.

In the book The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis mentioned something I was already familiar with but stirred me to think it over.  The point he was making was not the main point taken.  This is a way the Holy Spirit often works in preaching, and I have observed many times He brings to hearer's hearts everlasting truth the preacher never anticipated.  C.S. Lewis wrote:

"The thing you long for summons you away from the self.  Even the desire for the thing lives only if you abandon it.  This is the ultimate law--the seed dies to live, the bread must be cast upon the waters, he that loses his soul will save it.  But the life of the seed, the finding of the bread, the recovery of the soul, are as real as the preliminary sacrifice.  Hence it is truly said of heaven "in heaven there is no ownership.  If any there took upon him to call anything his own, he would straightway be thrust out into hell and become an evil spirit."  But it is also said "To him that overcometh I will give a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it."  What can be more a man's own that this new name which even in eternity remains a secret between God and him?  And what shall we take this secrecy to mean?  Surely, that each of the redeemed shall forever know and praise some one aspect of the divine beauty better than any other creature can.  Why else were individuals created, but that God, loving all infinitely, should love each differently?  And this difference, so far from impairing, floods with meaning the love of all blessed creatures from one another, the communion of the saints.  If all experienced God in the same way and returned Him an identical worship, the song of the Church triumphant would have no symphony, it would be like an orchestra in which all the instruments played the same note...For doubtless the continually successful, yet never completed, attempt by each soul to communicate its unique vision to all others (and that by means whereof earthly art and philosophy are but clumsy imitations) is also among the ends for which the individual was created." (Lewis, C. S. The Problem of Pain. Whitefriars Press Ltd., London and Tonbridge, 1942.)

Lewis' allusion to the passage grabbed my attention, the part when Jesus addressed the church in Pergamos in Revelation 2:17:  "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it."  This is numbered among the many promises Jesus makes to overcomers through faith in Him.  It is not a surprise Jesus Christ who makes all things new will provide a new revelation of Himself to His followers to cherish for eternity.  There is something intriguing and alluring about the secrecy, that God has something special just for me and just for you, a unique name for us to call Him--or even a name He calls us.  John was not precisely clear about whose name is written on the stone, but I am looking forward to discovering the secret personally in God's time!  The One who created, called, and chose us has a glorious future other believers will share but for each it will be a personally tailored experience.  It will be the culmination of God's awesome design, that the Saviour slain from the foundations of the earth would joyfully receive His inheritance and we, His redeemed creatures fashioned in His image, will become all He envisioned us to be together.  The saints may be lumped together as one for our convenient reference, but each have an intimate relationship with God that transcends all others.

We could spend our days wondering what the secret name could be or what we think it ought to be, but that misses the point entirely.  Through Christ we can overcome, and He has much He delights to reveal and give to us.  God has already given us a life, a body and personality we never dreamed of or could imagine in the womb of our mothers, and our eternal state will be just as other-worldly and infinitely better than life in or outside a uterus on earth.  The good God who created us and is preparing a place for us to be with Him forever knows perfectly what we need and even the desires of our hearts.  Free from the sins of greed, envy, and covetousness we will be wholly content without the impulse to compare our whites stone with others.  We will eat of the hidden manna He provides and be given at least one secret name revealed by God no one else will know.  This shows me we will not be all-knowing as God is but confirms eternity will be a time of glorious discovery of God as we fellowship with Him, self abandoned to His praise and adoration because He is worthy.