Not Just for the Old Testament

I think it's easy to forget that some of the mighty and wonderful things God did in Old Testament times He still does today. I am not speaking simply of miracles. Throughout the Old Testament , and into the new, we see that God placed great value on a person's name. A name was often prophetic of the role that child would play in history or a marker of the parents state of mind.

More than once God changed someones name when the old no longer applied. Sometimes, as is the case with Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah... holding on to your given name was done simply to prove you did belong to your God.

I have always said that God chose the names of each of our children. No favorite but unused name has ever been recycled. They fit each soul and then they no longer fit. Rebekah has been a name both my husband and I have loved since before Noah was born... but it's never been the right time or the right baby to place that name on the list.

This all strikes me as today, my beloved husband, wrote this in a blog he shares with the students he teaches...

"We had a discussion about names in APUSH this last week. About Phoebe Caufield's name and whether Salinger's choice for Holden's sister was deliberate. I asked Elizabeth Martinez if she knew what her first name meant and made them laugh about telling any boy who even looked at my Phoebe Elisabeth that her names meant "Pure" and "Consecrated/Set Apart for God".
And, thinking also of my youngest unborn daughter, asked APUSH'er Rebecca Figueroa if she knew what her first name meant, not entirely sure if I remembered myself the origin of Eden's middle name.

So this morning, I looked it up again and thought how wonderfully appropriate and inspired my youngest daughter's name is.

"Rebekah" means "to bind".

I remember Mrs. Anderson telling me this early in the pregnancy after we had decided on a name and finding it rather odd, wondering if we had made the right choice and wondering if it were as appropriate as Noah James (The Peaceful Comforter, Brother of John the Beloved), Phoebe Elisabeth (Pure, Consecrated to God) and John Steven (God is Merciful and Gracious, Anointed/Crowned). Looking it up again this morning, I find it beautiful and so wonderfully fitting. If anyone has ever helped to bind our growing family and our church family together, it has been our little Eden Rebekah and all God has taught us through her.

Eden means to delight or find pleasure in.

Perfect. Just perfect.

Three more weeks.

Keep praying for our little Eden Rebekah and for our entire family."