Naming Wonder

So God has wrapped up phase 1 of the creation gig, and…

Genesis 2:18 ADONAI, God, said, “It isn’t good that the person should be alone. I will make for him a companion suitable for helping him.” 19 So from the ground ADONAI, God, formed every wild animal and every bird that flies in the air, and he brought them to the person to see what he would call them. Whatever the person would call each living creature, that was to be its name. 20 So the person gave names to all the livestock, to the birds in the air and to every wild animal. [CJB]

My daughter McKenna is absolutely in love with any kind of animal. Even the ones that freak her out (>5 legs) seem to share a certain bond with her just like any human. At 3 years old, she has an understanding of how she fits in God’s creation, and how we all have something in common in being made by the same One.

So any time she meets a new critter (even in inanimate form), she can come up with a new name in a split second that just seems to be ‘the right name.’

When Kenni was almost 2, my mom gave her a knitted black and white striped scarf that had a puppy’s face on one end: she named her “Happy.” Her Lambchop puppet (whose decrepit, threadbare body has been attached to her hip since Christmas, 2005) is “Choppy.” When some friends gave her this glittery horse for her 3rd birthday, she immediately started calling him “Wonder.”

I guess this naming thing is just in the human spirit. It’s because names really do mean something to God.

McKenna’s name was one that my wife dreamed for our little girl months before we even conceived her. It means “able.” Nothing could describe our intense child better. Caia, our youngest, is unusually chipper. Very unlike her sister, she will reach out for a stranger to hold her. She gets so excited about the simplest things, and will beam from ear to ear as she army crawls as fast as she can toward anyone who walks into the room. Fitting…her name means, “to rejoice.” It’s not like we name our kids when they’re 12 and we already have them figured out. God knows them before they’re even zygotes.

What’s in a name?

The Name of God appears 6828 times in the Bible…
• The second line of “The Lord’s Prayer”, so familiar to us all, says, “Hallowed be thy name.” Luke 11:2
• We are also promised that, “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.” Romans 10:13
• “In the last days everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Acts 2:21 / Joel 2:32

What does your name mean?