A new name

It didn't hit me what "abandoned" meant until I was looking at the names on the wall of the special needs classroom last year.  Each student had a name card on the wall, proudly displaying their first and last names.

Except for one, which only read "Charity."

I'd been told that she'd been abandoned in the forest, but other abandoned children I'd met at least knew their parents long enough to know their last names.  Charity had been in the forest for so long that she had no recollection of human behavior, let alone her name.

I imagine there are any number of names Charity could have chosen based on how she'd been treated early in life:  Unwanted. Unloved. Disposable. Ignored. A painful past can lead to painful ideas about one's worth. Mistreated children grow into adults who believe they are ugly, they are worthless, they are unloved. Adults who don't know how great God's love is for us.

But the Tania Centre is a place where the children are loved and treated as family.  They know here that, no matter what a child's past has been, God sees that child as beautiful, valuable, and loved. And, this week, as the children were called one by one to come receive their new uniforms, Charity was called not just "Charity," but a first AND last name.  This place that is so full of love could not leave her nameless.  Charity is a part of a family now, and that family has given her a new name.

Though we may not have a story as drastic as Charity's, many of us have grown up giving ourselves names that don't reflect our true value:  Mediocre. Hopeless. Plain. Jaded. Condemned. Maybe you grew up always feeling second best, or maybe society's impossible beauty standards have made you feel impossibly unattractive. Maybe you're sick so often you're sure you'll never be well, or maybe you've been abused and have come to believe you deserved it. You've given yourself a name that reflects how you feel, but this doesn't reflect God's reality.

To God, you are more than mediocre.  You have a future filled with hope.  You are made in his image, which is anything but plain.  God can erase your condemnation, and, when he does, he'll replace all of those names.

"The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.  You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord's hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God.  No longer will they call you Deserted, or your name Desolate."  --Isaiah 62:2-4

How wonderful to have a name reflecting a family that means LOVE.