December 17th Advent Devotional

December 17

Luke 1:59-63

On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. But his mother said, ‘No; he is to be called John.’ They said to her, ‘None of your relatives has this name.’ Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him. He asked for a writing-tablet and wrote, ‘His name is John.’ And all of them were amazed.

-Luke 1:59-63

Nothing about the birth of John was what I would classify as “normal.” Elizabeth, who so wanted a child and could not have one, became with child. Zechariah had a close encounter with Gabriel, who both named the child “John” and caused Zechariah to be mute until the day of John’s naming. Also, Elizabeth and her cousin, Mary, the mother of Jesus, rejoiced together in the amazing events that were happening through them.

In Shakespeare’s play, Juliet asks Romeo, “What’s in a name?” But in the Bible, names seem to be extremely important. Saul became Paul, Jacob became Israel, Sarai became Sarah, and Abram became Abraham after encounters with Holy God. I often heard parents say to groups of us who were going out the door—“Remember who you are!” That’s parent-speak for “don’t do anything that brings shame on your family name.”

There’s an old East Tennessee saying, “you did your mama proud,” when what we do reflects well on how we were raised. One day I was leaving Reeves-Sain and I saw a young man assisting an older man up the stairs into the pharmacy. I thought that they had come together but the older man thanked the younger man upon making it inside. I looked at the younger man and said, “you did your mama proud just now.” He replied, “oh, I hope so!”

We may not change our legal names upon encountering the Living God, but we take on Christ’s name—Christ Followers. When we represent Christ. That is a high calling and causes us to test our actions and our words against what would make Christ proud. May we be aware of who we are and whose we are as we “represent” Christ in our world.

Pam Pilote