What's In A Name?

My dad's mother was named Ila Mae. Also in the extended family were Ella Mae, Ethyl Mae, Lela Mae, and all of them were called by their first and middle names.  That in itself was somewhat confusing to us as kids growing up and trying to remember which of the Mae's belonged to which uncle, and in most cases I would have to think of them as a couple before I got the right Mae. To add to the confusion my mom's mother was named Lena Mae, and as far as I know, she was the only Mae on that side of the family. Two of her brothers did marry women named Ruby, so it was a little confusing to have two Aunt Ruby's .  To really make this confusing was the fact they both lived in the same community so everyone in the little town, not just the family, started calling them Hardy's Ruby and David's Ruby.  Then Hardy died but everyone still called his wife Hardy's Ruby, until a few years later when she married again to Bub. You might think they started calling her Bub's Ruby but that wasn't necessary because David's Ruby had died and now there was only one Ruby. Oops, I messed up. I just remembered Hardy and David had a brother, Hubert, that married late in life to a woman named Laura Mae. My apologies to anyone on either side of my family with the name of Mae or Ruby which I have left out. I do know when I was growing up it dawned on me one day how fortunate I was to not be named Ron Ruby-Mae.

Names have important meanings to us, just as they did in Bible days.  For example, the name Aaron means "mountain of strength," and the name Rachel means "little lamb."  It's an interesting and sometimes humorous study to trace the meaning of names.

Matthew records the birth announcement of Jesus in Matthew 1:21, "She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”  Then two verses later, “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel—which means, “God with us.” If we go back to the Old Testament prophecies of Jesus, we find some other names. Isaiah prophesied," And he will be called  Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,  Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."  That's a lot of names for a newborn baby. Truth be told, those names and others which refer to Jesus demonstrate his awesome power and his willingness to bring us God in the flesh.  It is of eternal importance that we come to know Jesus through all these meanings. There will be times when you need to know him as Wonderful Counselor, and at all times we need to know Jesus as "God with us."  Remember, this Jesus will save us from our sins.

The song is true, "There's something about that name."  Paul, in writing to the Philippians, says the name of Jesus is above every name. Look at the text, " ⁵ Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:  ⁶ Who, being in very nature God,  did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, ⁷ but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself  and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! ⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father " Philippians 2:5-11.

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