When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbours and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.
On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, “No! He is to be called John.”
They said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who has that name.”
I gave my dad a subscription to Ancestry.com for his birthday this year.
He is not the most tech-savvy person out there and he’s had me (also not tech-savvy) as his wing-woman to assist him doing some exploring. He hasn’t got very far just yet.
Hopefully over the January break he might make some interesting discoveries.
On both sides of the family, it’s not long before you’re back in the UK. My maternal grandfather was born in Clapham, so I like to think I have a direct relative link to William Wilberforce.
If you know my last name, you’d know it’s unsurprising that my dad’s side of the tree fairly quickly lands you in Scotland.
There was rumour that someone in the family tree owned land in Edinburgh, and with my last name and land at Edinburgh, things are looking positively royal.
And might be why I got my dad that subscription 😉
Every now and then I do a bit of corporate work. Recently when I was signing out at the venue, a woman came to give me some assistance. She told me what to do and told me to put my Christian name in such and such a place.
“Christian name?” I said. “I haven’t heard it called that in about 20 years.”
Christian names are important.
Family names are important. They make it clear who you are connected to, both in the present day and in the past.
My older brother should have the same name as my dad, but my mum broke rank on 5 or 6 generations – and an engraved pewter mug with the name – claiming that no child of hers would have Lorimer as their middle name (or anywhere in their name for that matter).
Elizabeth in the above passage breaks ranks on naming her firstborn son also.
People try to control her decision, but she will have none of it:
John will be his name.
For whatever reason, ‘John’ was critical. Elizabeth might not have even known why, but she followed the instructions she’d been given.
Often when I hand back an assignment to a student they are disappointed with their mark and ask for feedback. I tell them to get out the task notification and read it through with me again. I often end up saying the same thing:
“So, did you follow the instructions?”
They then admit that they didn’t and that’s why they came asunder.
So perhaps, in this seemingly short and random passage, the first Christmas teaches us a couple of things:
It’s OK to break rank. Elizabeth did and so can you. God obviously wanted it to happen. So you don’t have to do what’s expected of you. God’s wishes come first.
And regardless of whether you’re a John, Lorrimer, or whatever your Christian name is – just follow the instructions.
Yours going corporate tomorrow,
Alison
