By Jude Burrows
Names are important to me. My birth name is
Judith but I have reclaimed it as Jude. My parents chose this name for me. I
hated it when I was a child. I wanted to be a Julie or a Karen. But my parents
gave us all biblical / Hebrew names. There’s a Stephen, a Rachel, a Beth, a
Kirsty (Rebecca), an Andrew and a Michael as well as a ‘me’. What a godly bunch
we must be…!
I too have chosen ‘godly’ (or at least
meaningful) names for my kids. I have a Naomi (pleasant), a Sophie (wisdom), a
Joshua (Jesus Saves) and a Holly (the evergreen a reminder of eternal life,
and the berries a picture of the shedding of Jesus’ blood ). I chose these
names for my kids as I wanted to speak something over them, some truth about
who they were and would be, and about who their true Father is.
Some of these
names fit better than others – my Sophie, for example, is a complete
‘head-the-ball’ (nutter) – and yet perhaps there is wisdom to be found in
cutting loose and going a little crazy at times…? Time will tell! Naomi is
definitely a pleasant child. Joshua may indeed grow up to be a strong rescuer –
his daddy keeps on hoping so – but even if he doesn’t, his name is a constant
reminder to me that God called me out of a controlling work situation into a
place of freedom and fulfilment. And Holly’s name reminds me that God is Always
present, and that His blood covers all things, provides for all things, equips
us for all things.
And names are important to God – in the
Bible he often chose the name for new babies – ‘Call him Jesus’ – not Joseph
like propriety would have suggested. ‘Call him John’ – not Zachariah like his birth father. And
with Jacob (meaning Heel), God gave him the new name ‘Israel’, God-Wrestler,
Father of a Nation. God gave them new names, drawing a line under all that had
gone before, creating a fresh start, freeing them from their human legacy.
Our names are like a banner over us – a
label. And some of us have names we hate or names that have little or no real
meaning.
Some names have negative meanings – at university I shared a house
with an Italian girl called Mara, which means ‘bitterness’, and I always
wondered how this would affect a person, carrying a name with negative
connotations.
And yet I know that we don’t have to live
under any negative label – you can choose a new name, even if it’s a secret one
that only you know.
Ask God what HE calls you, how HE sees you, the apple of
his eye, His precious child, His perfect creation. Because in knowing our real
name, we know our identity, we know the hopes and dreams that He as the perfect
parent has poured into us.
If you are a parent, you know how you
agonised over the ‘any names yet?’ question. You pored over those baby names
books, marvelling at the endless possibilities, at the horrors of getting it
wrong. And then you heard or read a name that seemed to have potential and you
mulled it over and you weighed it up. You checked the initials wouldn’t spell
anything dodgy, you shortened it to see how it would sound yelled by future
friends across future playgrounds, you went through all the possible rhyming
words to make sure they wouldn’t get called anything awful at school… And when
you saw your baby for the first time you tried it out, perhaps secretly to
check if it was a good fit. And then you told people, out loud. ‘This is no
longer baby girl Burrows (insert your own family name here!). This is
_________! She has a name, a title, a banner over her which says _________.’
And even if you didn’t do this, God has
done this for each and every one of us. HE has carved our names into the palms
of his hands. He knows WHO we are, WHAT we carry, and EVERYTHING that we can be
because of what He has sown (sewn!- like a label in our school jumper!) into
us.
When we were trying to think of a name for
our business we came up with lots of options but none were a good fit. We
wanted the initials to be redolent of Handbags and Gladrags (H&G), we
wanted it to say everything about the purpose behind the shop in a few words
(impossible!!!) and we had an idea that it should be two women’s names, kind of
kitsch, kind of fun but oh-so-meaningful. And Hope & Gloria was a name
bestowed upon us by God – it truly feels like a banner that says all that we
can’t.
I have long known that my name was
significant, not just because my parents wanted to give me a good legacy and
bestow meaning and purpose on my life, but because God has called me, God knows
me way better than I know myself. St Jude is the Patron Saint of hopeless and
lost causes. I always thought this was kind of sad, but I now know it to be an
amazing and wonderful thing. To be an ambassador for the lost! To seek out and
find hidden treasure! To find new purpose and meaning for things that others
see as nothing, as useless, as trash. What a calling! And how well the Father
knows me, that he could call these things out in me way before I understood
that names were more about Passion than Fashion.
What does your name mean? And do you need a
fresh start? Because the God that gave Abram the new name, Abraham, ‘Father of many Nations’, can also give
you a new name if you need it or can restore the original design in the one
bestowed on you at birth. His Banner over you is LOVE. x
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