For several sessions now, our FIRST LEGO League team has mulled over a team name. Purple Programming Pandas? Cyberdyne? Programming Pythons? What original name would capture the coolness and essence of the team?
In the Bible, names are significant. God changes Abram's name to Abraham, because he wasn't only going to be an "exalted father"- no, he would be the "father of many nations." (Genesis 17:5) When Mary conceives through the Holy Spirit, the angel tells both her and Joseph the son is to be named "Jesus" (the Greek form of Joshua, which means The Lord saves) "because he will save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:21, Luke 1:31)
Names are given in anticipation of what the person will do or become. Abram was 99 years old, with no promised child in human sight, when God changed his name. Sarai, his wife, knew that her bearing a child at the age of 89 was an impossibility, maybe an absurd joke. Yet God called it, and the following year, Abraham and Sarah were holding Isaac in their arms.
God sees us as we will be, not as we are. Isn't that beautiful? He looks beyond the inadequacies and seeming impossibilities of our current state to the potential that is possible only through Him. With God, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26).
What does He call us? Righteous, redeemed, restored. Child of God. Free. Beloved. He has even given us the Holy Spirit in our heart "as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come." (2 Corinthians 1:22) As we surrender to Him, we can be assured of His work in our lives, molding us and forming us to become whom He has called us to be.
In the Bible, names are significant. God changes Abram's name to Abraham, because he wasn't only going to be an "exalted father"- no, he would be the "father of many nations." (Genesis 17:5) When Mary conceives through the Holy Spirit, the angel tells both her and Joseph the son is to be named "Jesus" (the Greek form of Joshua, which means The Lord saves) "because he will save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:21, Luke 1:31)
Names are given in anticipation of what the person will do or become. Abram was 99 years old, with no promised child in human sight, when God changed his name. Sarai, his wife, knew that her bearing a child at the age of 89 was an impossibility, maybe an absurd joke. Yet God called it, and the following year, Abraham and Sarah were holding Isaac in their arms.
God sees us as we will be, not as we are. Isn't that beautiful? He looks beyond the inadequacies and seeming impossibilities of our current state to the potential that is possible only through Him. With God, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26).
What does He call us? Righteous, redeemed, restored. Child of God. Free. Beloved. He has even given us the Holy Spirit in our heart "as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come." (2 Corinthians 1:22) As we surrender to Him, we can be assured of His work in our lives, molding us and forming us to become whom He has called us to be.