to THIS DAY I can still hear it perfectly … my beloved mother who has found her place in the church of New Jerusalem over 2 decades ago … whenever I had done something REALLY stupid as a kid … she’d use ALL of my names (even the 4th for emphasis!) before tearing into me … don’t get me wrong, while I may not have realized it at the time, I did deserve it, but, I think that’s the only time all of those names were ever pronounced all together except maybe at my birth 🙂 … Now, most of the time I was called “baby buddy” because I was Cecil the 4th (makes perfect sense, huh!) … and that made dad, obviously, “little buddy,” and … you guessed it, papa was “big buddy” … once I finally was too old to be a “baby” anymore (watch it!) they shortened it to “bud” to keep us straight … confused … yup … me too 🙂 …
where am I goin’ with this, you may ask ??? well, how many “names” do you have ??? (after readin’ above, it’s not so simple, eh?) … currently I can think of a few dozen without comments from the peanut crew just for me alone that wouldn’t make me want to make a call to the mental health profession … there’s Cecil (of course) but, also dad, pappeye, brother, nephew, cousin, nicknames that friends and family have, you get the picture … but, they’re MEANINGFUL … I was thinkin’ of this today when lil’bit’s full name came out of my beloved’s mouth while she was tryin’ to get him to go back to sleep and, well, let’s say he is more interested in his “shoo shoo” that we got him the other week, but, just like my mom knew all those years ago, his “mimi” knows best 🙂 …
our bible readings today are all about names … when Moses is asking God what He wants the people to call Him, He knows that there are a lot of other “little g” gods in Egypt that have names, so, He doesn’t want His people to be confused, so he lays down the law (ha!, see what I did there!) with I AM! … then, with Jesus and Peter … it’s a double whammy … not only does Jesus give Simon props for publicly stating who He is, He then elevates him, gives him a new name right then and there and states that He is going to build His church on that rock !!! … wow … and you thought a name was just a name … well, enough name calling … have an excellent day !!!! ps … the picture with Toni and Hamzeh “Leo” … that’s from our Holy Land Trip … on the first day he introduced himself and said to call him “Leo” … we’ve been friends ever since 🙂
Bible Verses
Matthew 16:13-20 / Exodus 3:3-15
Questions
have you ever given thought to the names that you have … or … the names that you give (or call) others ???? will you now ???
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