Daughter

I have called you by name, you are mine. Isaiah 43:1

I have a minor obsession with names. And by minor, I mean, well major. I have named and renamed my future children hundreds of times.  I pick books by the words on the cover, analyze songs by the title, and literally pick my toenail polish based on the name. Currently I'm rocking the "Two Time Zones" shade of hot pink. 

I guess it's no surprise that a lover of words and writing would want to know the name of everything and everyone and  have such a passion for knowing the story behind each name. Because, I think the truth is, we can tell a lot by a name. 

This past week I shared some time with my papa in the home he retired in. We reminisced about my childhood, amazing trips, and family functions. We shared laughter, and tears, and went through some of his most treasured possessions. And I won't name them all, but I will admit, the joy I found in his collection of Hummels was discovering the name of each piece. 

My cousins, brother, and I looked at the collection of each sweet ceramic scene. I was captured by the sweet little faces of children with rosy checks on each piece as they climbed the tree, played the flute, or carried the cake. And while they themselves where enchanting, I was even more enchanted by the names that read on each one. The little girl that held two hands behind her back was named "Which one?" and the little boy holding a bouquet of flowers out of reach of his puppy was called "Not for You". I loved picking up each piece and being pleasantly surprised by the thoughtful name the creator had given them. 

Which leads me to this, what thoughtful name has the creator given you? We all have the names that we are given at birth, the ones we will give our kids someday, the ones that have been given to those that we had no idea would be the name of our future best friend or spouse. And while I will admit, it's true these names almost always fit us perfectly somehow, I wonder more about what name God calls us. 

You see, Danielle, that's my human name. And while it sums up in so many ways who I am, it doesn't say it all. Because Danielle is just a girl. And that girl fails, and gossips, and acts jealous. That girl runs from the love of God sometimes out of fear, and selfishness, and pure laziness. And that girl doubts the strength of God in her more regularly than she'd like to admit. And so somedays, I think when I only remember that name I'm not remember the whole story about who I am. 

But there's this other name that came up at coffee with a friend the other day. And I think that name tells the whole story. It's the name I hear God longing to call me. DAUGHTER. That name says love trumps everything. That name says I have a Father. THE FATHER OF ALL FATHERS. That name says I have a home no matter how many times I think I fail. That name describes me wholly and perfectly. It defines me as God's. 

But how often do I forget that name, or live under the pretense that it's not my own. And when I look at other women or men, do I see them as their earthly names; Rita, Dorothy, Matthew or Paul, or or do I look at the name God calls them by. Do I see them as a son or daughter? How life changes when I look at someone for their heavenly value. 

I was enchanted by the names of little figurines because the words encompassed the story each one told, what story does the name a son or daughter of Christ tell? I venture to guess a pretty amazing one. And I realized that day in the middle of our organizing and admiring, that I want to live to see more by the name God calls me and others by. It's not because the names our parents gave us aren't beautiful or don't fit us, in fact I hope with all my heart that if I ever have children I can give them a name worthy of their goodness, but maybe that's the gift.  God, just like our parents, saw our goodness and named us His sons and daughters, what if we lived the truth of that name? 

You are a son or daughter of God, let that NAME lead the story of your life.