Tuesday, March 29, 2011

What is in a Name?

A Name.  What is in a Name?

I spent 33 years of my life with the same name.  My last name was rather long ~ 8 letters to be exact.  If someone was familiar with nationalities and names you could immediately tell what my heritage was.  It was unique.  Most people that shared my last name were either related to me or came from the same area.  My name meant that I belonged to other people.  We were a family and you could tell by our name.

Then I got married.  My husband and I both agreed that I would change my name.  In a conversation months before the wedding this sounded like a good plan.  We would be the newlywed couple with the same name.  You could easily identify that we belonged together. 

The day came and I changed my name.  I would often write my old name.  After all I had been writing it for 33 years.  People would call me Mrs. Xxxx and I would immediately reply with "That's not my name" and then realize that it actually was.  Oops, no, I'm not crazy I'm just having an identity crisis.  My husband's siblings were mostly adopted by his step-dad so no one in the family has the same last name.  No one on the outside could identify that we were related with anyone else.

I was asked to join a group of women as part of a leadership team.  The head of this team usually calls me by my first and last name.  She has a very strong voice and when she says my name she says it with such power.  I often wanted to ask her to please not call me that.  But then the question is what would she call me?  After all she is using MY name.  When I see her children, they all call me Mrs. Xxxx.  I've thought about asking them to call me by my first name.  I mean, its so formal and seems out of place.

Somewhere, somehow, my name has grown on me.  When people call my name, I have begun to proudly stand instead of wonder who they could possibly be looking for.

Have you ever wonder what God calls us?  Daughter, Baby, Wee One, Lost Soul, My Love, Child, . . . do any of these fit?  Maybe he has nicknames for us.  I like to paint my toe nails Red.  Maybe he calls me Red Toes?!

As much trouble as I have with my name, I had with the Title of my Blog.  I wanted a Title that implied God would be present here.  I also wanted it to be intimate and lovely and fun.  So, here it is!! 

Wrapped in His Grace.

I hope as the author and you as the reader both feel Wrapped in God's Grace.