Hebrews 4:12-13

"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account."

We have started having Caleb copy down the main points during the sermon with the hope of helping him to engage worship. It's obviously a learning curve because the focus for him is pretty much his penmanship more than the content of what he is actually writing.

So you can imagine my surprise when in the midst of copying off the main point yesterday, he was tracking so much with what the pastor was saying that he blurted out this appalled response:

"I get angry. So I'm a fool?! That's dumb. That's a insulting word! That's insulting to the WHOLE CHURCH!!"

I ended up giving him the option of setting his clipboard aside if he agreed to listen closely. He chose that option, of course, and later had this to say when the topic was the industriousness of the ant:

"The kind of ant I want to be is an army ant...actually, a fire ant, they are defensive."

You've Heard of the Song That Never Ends...

"There's an everlasting wedgie! I gave myself a wedgie and it's everlasting and I don't know how to get it out of here."

Good luck with that one, son.

What's in a Name

Caleb JOHN* Andrew

When we were childless, asking God to gift us with a child to call our own, I read and "connected" with every story of barren women in Scripture. But the one that spoke to my soul the most is the one of Elizabeth, the relative of Mary, the mother of Jesus. And not simply or even primarily because we share a name.

It was this passage that jumped off the page at me as I was reading it one day:

     ...you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness
     and MANY WILL REJOICE AT HIS BIRTH, for he will be great before
     the Lord.
     ~Luke 1:13-15

I knew there and then that if God ever gave us a son, he would need to share this name because I knew that indeed many would rejoice at his birth.

What I didn't know at that point is how much delight he would bring to many throughout his life.

Depending on where you look, the Hebrew meaning of the name John is something along these lines:

     YAHWEH is gracious
     graced by YHWH
     Jehovah has been gracious, has shown favor
     God is gracious

Indeed He has been gracious and shown favor...in too many ways to count but Caleb JOHN Andrew is certainly one of the big ones.

And he has shown His favor to him. My prayers for this boy have been many but as the passage in Luke goes on, I certainly pray this will be true of our son:

     And he will turn many...to the Lord their God, and he will go before
     him..., to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the
     disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord
     a people prepared.
     ~Luke 1:15-17

 

Jesus knew who we needed in our family and we cannot imagine our lives without this passionate, clever young man. He is so different than either of us and we love that. He has forever changed us and for that we can never thank our Father enough.

I am beyond curious as to what his "white stone" name is (Revelation 2:17). But that is for him to hear from Jesus.And I wouldn't have it any other way.



*Two Side Notes:
1) This is not to say the other two names don't have their own significance. This is just the one on my mind today.

2) This is also a name he shares with many in our extended families. I am sure I will forget some if I try to list them all, so I will simply mention the two closest: his Papa John, of course; and his Uncle Nathan John (his Daddy's brother). As a side note to the side note: he shares a middle name with an uncle on each side: Uncle Stephen Andrew (his Mama's younger brother) is a part of the significance of his second middle name.

Mamarazzi

Mom: "It's not like you're so famous, that you have to worry about having your picture taken."

Caleb: "I'm GOING to be famous by the time you take thousands of pictures of me."

He might be on to something. :)

All In the Name

While enjoying a rare "off-restriction" treat:

"I didn't know cheese pizza had this much cheese on it."