My beloved is mine, and I am his.. Song 2:16

My favorite cousin Annie was a happy, cheerful soul. The minute she walked into a room, the atmosphere changed as if a refreshing breeze  had blown in from an opened window.  One of Annie’s most endearing traits was her use of pet names for people. Boys and men were “Handsome”; the women were always  “Gorgeous.” When Annie saw me, she’d  embrace me with a “Hello, Sunshine!” I would bask in her  words  the rest of the day. Who would not feel handsome or gorgeous or like sunshine in Annie’s  presence? It was her gift to family and friends. 

Pet names in families are used for children or those we love and hold dear.  Some names are so silly and foolish  outside of our most intimate  relationships, they’d be cringeworthy. Lovers call each other the goofiest names. It might be  Sweetcheeks, Dumpling, Babe or Cupcake or even something insulting.  My Mexican “daughter”  Silvia was always Gorda” to her  sweetheart and family, but she  never took offense. None was intended.

In my German family pet names were usually diminutives of given names, so Josef, Anton and Elizabeth naturally became “Sepp(i), Toni, and Lisi.” (My name didn’t lend itself to such endearing dimunition  ). Sometimes –chen  or –le added to a special word makes it even more precious:  Schatz (treasure) becomes Schätzle,  Puppe (doll),  Puppchen , Herz (heart) Herzchen.  I don’t remember my parents using  pet names  openly with us when we were young, but later when the grandchildren came along, it was different. Pete’s three young kids were “The Hurricane” as they stormed through my mother’s tidy home.  When we visited from Idaho, our children were their  Enkelkinder or  Englein (little angels.)

When my mother had several strokes and was failing, I flew to New York to help out. Several nights as my parents were preparing for bed, I heard my father whispering to Mom, calling her his Schäfel (lamb.) I was dumbfounded. I’d never heard Pop say something so lovingly intimate to Mom.  It was as if I had  a glimpse of  their youth, their courting days  when Mom was his 18 year old sweetheart, when he had a lover’s  name for her.  I may never have heard my father express himself this way before,  but the pet name  had been in his heart for over seventy years. Mom was and would always be  Schäfel to him.

If we have special names for those we love, so does God. One of my favorite references in the Bible is how the Lord called Israel, His chosen people, “the apple of His eye.” It’s a reference to the eye’s pupil which gathers in the perfect amount of light the eye needs. Just as the pupil is extremely vulnerable and needs protection from harm, infection or damage, so has God put the Jews – and us through Jesus – into  the very center of His  all seeing protection. Scripture tells how God chose Israel as His portion to protect  and keep.

“He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness;  he encircled him, he cared for him,  he kept him as the apple of his eye. Deut. 32:10

David prays  for this special protection from his enemies:

Keep me as the apple of your eye. Hide me under the shadow of your wings.  Psalm  17:8

When we know we are protected, we also understand how deeply loved we are. The “Song of Songs” is the Bible’s  effusive, poetic song for  and about lovers. It is here in God’s Word where the Lord  reveals His passionate love for His children, His people. and the New Testament Church. The Shulamite  and the Beloved call out to us for intimacy with our God in language filled with lover’s  imagery and language spoken only in the secret place. Peruse the seven chapters and search out where God’s pet name for you is hidden. Are you God’s gazelle, His  rose of Sharon,   His  handsome beloved or His  fair dove?  He who knew you before you were born, who formed you in your mother’s womb and who has inscribed you  on the palm of His Hand, surely also names you for those intimate times when you’re stripped bare before HIm. Ask the Lord to reveal His special name for you, how you are “the apple of His eye” and so much more. Don’t be surprised at His answer! You knew it all along.