I just had a lesson taught me in why it is important for me
to give Father God honor and respect. This is something I haven’t thought much
about but something happened on Easter Sunday that really opened my eyes to
this.
Our daughter had their fourth precious little baby on Easter
Sunday. For this baby, they decided to find out the gender of the baby before he
was born. On all the three previous children, they didn’t want to know.
There is always a baby naming ceremony very soon after the
birth when all the grandparents, great grandparents, and other family members
can gather together at their home. The name for each child has been carefully
chosen as The Lord has laid the name upon the hearts of our son-in-law and
daughter; always names from the Bible having special significance to them at
the time.
Their first child, our first grand child, was given the name
David Joshua. The name David was special to them for many reasons. It means “Beloved”
and Joshua, means “God is Salvation”. David of the Old Testament; known as
the apple of God’s eye, a mighty warrior, a great king, and one who loved the
Lord. David is also the middle name of our son-in-law and the first name of his
earthly father.
Their second child was a girl. She was, in a way, a great surprise.
In my son-in-law’s family, all the children born have been boys, no girls at
all. So, when this little girl was born, it was a great joy and blessing to the
parents of our son-in-law. Oh, she is a great joy to us too; after all she’s
our second grand child.
Well, she was given the name Danielle Faye. They had chosen
the name Daniel if a boy and Danielle if a girl. Danielle means “God is my
judge” and Faye means “Faith”. The middle name “Faye” has other great
significance; it is our daughter’s middle name, her mother’s (my wife) middle
name, my wife’s mother’s middle name, and I think the middle name of a
generation or two above her.
The third child whose sex was not know until birth was a boy
and given the name Josiah Timothy. Josiah means “Fire of the Lord” and Timothy
means “Honor to God”. Again, the name had special meaning to our daughter and
son-in-law.
As the birth of our fourth grandson drew near, my wife tried
to get his name from our daughter for a project she was working on but all our
daughter gave her was that it had an “e” in one of the names. My wife started
guessing what the name might be; Peter, Joseph, Matthew; we even thought of the
name Melchizedek because we had just been discussing him and his significance
after studying the book of Hebrews. At one point, my wife mentioned that my
name ended with an “e”. Maybe his middle name will be Wayne. I was pretty sure there are no Waynes in the Bible and therefore would not have Wayne in his name. I had
not thought much until then about their naming the baby. But then I thought what
a great honor that would be that they would think of me in such a way as to
even consider Wayne
as one of his names. I told myself I was not going to be disappointed if his
name had no Wayne
in it.
Well, Easter Sunday evening was when we all gathered at the
house for the naming of the new baby boy. My son-in-law gave his middle name
first, which I didn’t remember him doing before and I thought was unusual. “Levi”
was to be his middle name. Then his first name was given; “Micah” His name
would be Micah Levi.
You know, I was pretty certain our new grandson would not
have Wayne as one of his names and I told myself that I was not going to be disappointed
but after saying his middle name is Levi, I pretty well tuned out the rest of
the naming ceremony. Sense that day I’ve thought about a lot of things. I
wondered what kind of father I was to our two daughters. How do they view me?
Then I thought about how I had treated Father God and Jesus,
His only begotten Son, the week of Easter and how that must have made Him feel.
The church I go to celebrates communion only twice a year; Maundy Thursday being
one of them. Leading up to Thursday, I wanted to go for communion. My wife and
I had gone to another property we own, which is a little over an hour away from home. I
had gotten a load of dirt in and I was spreading it all day Thursday. I was
still working on that when I should have quit, packed up and gone back home so
that I could make it for communion. Instead, we packed up and came home Friday
morning; I had told my younger daughter I would help her on her van conversion.
Again, I could have gone to church Friday evening but I was too busy with my
daughter’s project. Easter Sunday I was to sing with our small church choir.
Early that morning we got the call from our son-in-law that the baby was on the
way so I e-mailed our choir director that I would not be there and we drove to
our daughter and son-in-law’s home to help however we could. Our daughter gave
birth at 11:34. I could have sang at both services and still made it for the
birth of our new grandson but I thought being at our grandson’s birth more
important than remembering and celebrating God’s Son’s rising from the dead. I
chose so many other things over remembering and giving thanks to Father God and
to Jesus for what He did. Jesus went through so much pain and suffering in my
place. I couldn’t give priority to the remembrance of that and give honor to Father
God and to His Son??
I don’t know what is in me that I can not think about these
things until after it is too late. Father, forgive me, a most ungrateful
sinner. Help me, help me, help me. I so need Your help; you know how best to do that.
