“What will we name the baby?” I remember the many conversations, lists, and stacks of “baby name books” on the nightstand each time we tried to come up with a name for a new family member. A name would be proposed and one of us would say, “No we had a neighbor with that name and he was a bully,” or “no, that name was in that movie when he was the bad guy.” Names are important, and we wanted to give our children the right name.
One side of my family is Jewish, and names are very important in Jewish families, especially those coming out of the Eastern European Jewish communities that were constantly threatened with displacement or total annihilation. Their names connected children to the people who came before them, carried family stories, and continued the family ties even if pogroms, war, or escape to the New World separated them, physically, forever. Genealogy research and DNA tests have identified people in a dozen countries who share my Ashkenazi Jewish ancestors. In the families in each of those countries, there are generations of Abrahams, Samuels, Benjamins, Yohanans (John), Rachels and Saras. I have a daughter named Sara, a son named Samuel, and a son named John. Their names connect them with others, and with family histories of faith, bravery in the face of oppression, and a love of learning.
Names identify us to others, and even to ourselves. In the movie Harriet, when Araminta Harriet Ross bravely claims her new life as a free woman, she is invited to give herself a new name. She chooses Harriet, her mother’s name, maintaining her connection to her family, but not to the name she was called as a slave. Her name reflected what she wanted to remember (her mother), and the end of her life as the slave called Minty. Minty was a slave. Harriet was a free woman who was brave, smart, caring, and willing to sacrifice for others.
As followers of Jesus Christ, we take on a name that identifies us as members of a larger family, and connects us to the family of Christ-followers everywhere. We identify ourselves to others as Christians, and that claim links us to stories of caring, kindness, and sacrifice. Claiming that name means we represent Christ to everyone we meet. I want to be true to that name, but I know that I often fall short. I get angry. I get lazy. I allow fear to speak louder than God’s promises. Thankfully, when I claim that name, I am also given grace and forgiveness and strength to move forward and do better, in Jesus’ name. The Scripture in today’s GPS carries a promise that one day we will be given a new name that marks us as faithful and belonging to Christ if we allow Jesus to change us and guide us now. We seek to follow him and become so like him that we can bear that name into eternity.
Lord God, I want to be worthy to call myself by your name. When others see me, I want them to see you working in me, loving me so that I can love them without limitation. Let them see your grace and forgiveness in my life, and the change that it brings. Help me emerge victorious and carry the name you give into eternity with you. Amen
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June 02, 2021 at 11:20PM
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New name: signpost of freedom - Leawood - Church of the Resurrection
"freedom" - Google News
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