what is in a name?

let it be known.. i love to look up the meanings of names. if i am fond of you at all.. or if i think you have a cool name.. chances are, i've already looked up what your name means.. or if you are on my blog roll, you can count on it.. i just looked every single one of you up a little while ago.. creepy? maybe, but to me it's just really interesting to look up the meaning of a person's name and see if it lines up with their personality.

i mean think about it for a minute.. everything that exists on this planet has been given a name of some sort. and names are obviously important to God because he made sure all of his creation received a name.. starting from day one with Adam. Adam is hebrew for "man of the earth." appropriate right? and then one of the first things God told Adam to do on earth was to give a name to every other living creature.. read the first couple of chapters of Genesis for yourself and see if you don't notice how much naming was going on.. and then, when God created a helper for Adam, Adam named her Eve, which is hebrew for "life." again, so appropriate.. since eve was the first mother ever. are you starting to see why this is an interesting concept? in the beginning, a name carried a connotation with it.. names were given for a purpose... maybe our names are supposed to be part of our identity... perhaps even tell the truth about who we are...

also, think about the times in the bible when God changed the names of His children: abram to abraham, jacob to israel, saul to paul.. do you think maybe God cares about what we are called? i think he wants us to answer to a name that accurately depicts who we are... in other words... i think the name by which we are identified matters.. especially to God..

one more example.. when the angel appeared to mary to tell her she would be carrying the saviour, he specifically told her to name him Jesus. that was a direct order from God.. and Jesus means "God rescues" in Hebrew.. which i think defines who He is pretty well... don't you?

one of my favorite verses in the bible is Isaiah 43:1. it says this: "I have called you by name. You are mine." think about that for a minute. God calls us by our name.

of course, now i am going to tell you what my name means. i love the meaning of my name. callie is greek for "most beautiful." and alise, my middle name, means "noble or of nobility." and those are great things to be called! i like to think that my name, as a whole, means beautiful princess... you can go along with that, or not.. suit yourself :)

now, i want to bring up another interesting idea. let's think about satan for just a minute.. (whoah! where did that come from?) just go with me here. Satan, our arch nemesis, is JEALOUS of us. because God calls us by name, to be his sons and daughters. heirs to the throne.. and we are His chosen... and satan can't go anywhere near God.. let alone, be an heir to the throne.. now, Satan is known as the father of lies. in hebrew, satan actually translates as "the accuser." basically, satan, out of spite, does what he can to take the truth and twist it into unrecognizable falsehoods.

i have this theory.. i think that our names are more significant than we might presume. i think our names can be part of our identity.. part of the way God sees us.. and i think our names can be seen as a gift. something given to us.. that no one can take away. BUT.. i think satan.. being the liar and the thief that he is.. is eager to steal even that from us.. i think he attacks our identity from every angle.. but especially our name... it makes sense.. if we are given a name that carries a specific meaning.. how typical of satan to tell us that that's not who we are.. he wants us to believe the opposite.

i know this is true for me.. God had to practically chase me down and beg me to believe that I deserve to be called beautiful... by name. because satan worked overtime to convince me otherwise... and rob me of my identity (which is so like him).. he started when i was very young.. and if i hadn't, through grace, learned what God says about me... i might still be sizing myself up against the standards of this world.. trying to compete... trying to achieve an image that, by definition, i already am.. beautiful..

now.. this theory obviously won't work in every scenario. for example. my mom's name is sylvia, which means "woodlands." i doubt if satan has spent very much time trying to convince my mom that she is not really a forest. that would be ridiculous. and very easy to do. a lot of people's names don't necessarily make sense inside of this idea of mine.. but none-the-less.. in a lot of cases... this theory proves true. i know because i've talked about this with a few of my friends and it's been true for them as well.. you might think this all sounds like rubbish. but i would challenge you to at least look up the meaning of your name and see if you haven't, at some point or another, believed the lie that you don't live up to the meaning behind your name... you might just be surprised and enlightened.. and if not.. welp...