What's in a Name?

Just like all of the other good gifts we receive, I believe that God gives us our names.  I know all about the lengthy deliberations and the endless leafing through the pages of the baby name books - don't be fooled; we're all the time receiving guidance from above.

At the Annunciation, the angel Gabriel announced to an amazed young maiden, "And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus." (Luke 1:31)

Symphony

In two syllables;

And you shall call him Jesus,

For He shall save His people from their sin.

And I shall cry out "Jesus!

Have mercy on me,

A sinner!"

Names mean something.  Names are significant.  All of my kids have names which have become welded to their souls.  Each one has manifested the meaning of their name in ways both big and small.  God made quite certain to inform both of Jesus' earthly parents just what He was to be called.  Ready to divorce his apparently unfaithful fiancée, Joseph was arrested from doing so when an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary for your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."  (Matthew 1:20-21)

Christ

Creates a world from nothing;

Came to be among us;

Captains His disciples;

Censures His enemies;

Casts His lot with sinners;

Champions His Father's will;

Chooses to die for me!

Names are crucial.  Do you know the meaning of your name?

And in no other is there salvation: for there is no other name under heaven, given among men, through which we may have salvation.

                                                Acts 4:12