Your
Name Is Important
“For
a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon
his shoulders and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince
of Peace.”
Isaiah
9:6
As
an intern, my former husband, Joe, had a child patient whose name was
Jesus, pronounced 'Hey-suse.' The child was twelve years old, the age
at which Jesus first went to Jerusalem and taught in the temple. I
wondered how Joe's patient fared at school with a name like that. Did
the other children call him 'Lord' and make fun of him? It couldn't
have been easy.
There's
a new baby in my church whose name is Isaiah. He is only a few months
old, but already he's a very big boy, the size my sons were at ten
months. I told his parents they should have named him Samson. I think
he will be strong enough to defend his name.
My
own name, Jane, is a derivative of John and means “God is
gracious.” It's important, I think, to know the meaning of your
name. Some of us have family names, which is why our parents chose
the one they did, but even so, why that name and not another from the
family? There is significance associated with the name chosen even
when the choice was made unconsciously.
Many
of the plains Indians named their children at birth, but the child
was re-named when they came of age. After a vision quest in which the
child endured an ordeal alone in the wilderness, he or she was named
according to the dream or vision received on the quest. What is your name? What does it mean? Does it suit you?
Jesus
bore the title, Emanuel, or 'God with us.' And we have given him
other titles, 'Messiah,' for one, 'Son of God,' for another, and
'Christ.' That's a lot to live up to. For those of us who call
ourselves “Christian,” then, we are to model our lives after his.
We are to embody in the world all that Jesus stood for—acceptance
and forgiveness for all, provision of an open table, bringer of
peace, and healing for free. Are we living up to our name?
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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