Written at the Factory

Every device connected to the internet carries two kinds of identity. There is the IP address — temporary, assigned by whatever network you happen to join, changing every time you move to a new coffee shop or airport terminal. Then there is the MAC address, a unique hardware identifier burned into your device's network card at the moment of manufacture. You cannot edit it. You cannot lose it. It was written into you before you ever connected to anything.

We live in a world that wants to assign us IP addresses. Your job title, your bank balance, your follower count, your zip code — these are temporary identifiers handed out by whatever network you have joined. Lose the job, and the address changes. Move to a new city, and you get reassigned. We build entire lives on identities that were never permanent.

But Scripture tells us we carry something more like a MAC address — an identity written into us at the moment of creation. "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you," God told Jeremiah. The Psalmist marveled that he was "fearfully and wonderfully made." This identity was not assigned by a network. It was burned in by the Manufacturer.

The world will keep handing you temporary addresses. You will be Employee 4781, Case Number 3392, or Customer Since 2019. But none of those are your name. Your name was spoken by the One who made you — and that address never expires.