To Deserve A Name

 

"The house of my soul is far too small, still I will sing
I hear You softly speaking secrets that enclose
Words that softly linger with sweet repose"

 - Enclosed By You, by Josh White

 

During the week this summer when I was volunteering in a very poor part of Quito along with the team from Holland, I saw a mural which has stuck with me. It was painted on a cement wall along one of the dusty roads, and showed stick-figure children, smiling and playing. In large Spanish words, the mural proclaimed, "Children deserve - " and then went on to list things such as "education", "love", "hope", and "respect", all painted in individual little bubbles floating around the wall. The one which struck with me was this: "a name". The mural was reminding people that all children deserve a name.


I've been to more baby showers that I can count. I've known numerous friends and co-workers who became pregnant, excitedly announced the news, and were then asked the same things over and over and over again: "Boy or girl?", "Due date?", and of course, "Name?"
Many people decide to keep the name a secret, announcing it only at birth. It is special, important, and personal. A child's name is a large part of their identity. It is cultural, familial, meaningful in different ways.

Seeing the mural made me think once again of the things which, growing up in the US, I take for granted. Here, some people have enough "unwanted" children they may not even bother to give them a  real name. My friend Rachel worked out in some very poor areas and, seriously, she once met a family whose children were named "Primero, Segundo, y Tercera." Or in English: First, Second, and Third.

I quoted the song above because I love how it talks about softly spoken secrets from God, encased in our souls which can seem too small for such glorious things. I believe that even if a child has no earthly name, God knows their eternal name. It is not a number, or a repeat of other siblings names, or anything less than chosen by our Creator.

What does one need in order to deserve a name? Love. Hope. Enough respect to say, "You are a human being coming into this world; you are alive, with a future unknown except by God, and you deserve a name."