Welcome Baby Jack!

 Just over 2 weeks ago, our family welcomed our first baby boy to the family! Yes, we ended up being “those parents” who did not decide on a name for the little guy until a day after he was born, when the birth certificate lady was coming up the hall. What can I say- I've always been a procrastinator, and moving to Africa didn't help things in that department! In the end we decided on the name Jack Redison, which happens to fit him perfectly. And today I wanted to use this post to expound on how and why we chose this name for our son.

We decided on the name Jack for several reasons:

1)   My husband likes the name Jack (secretly I think it has something to do with his admiration of Jack Bauer…)

2)   It sounds good with Lucy & Olive (which apparently is very important according to the latest trends...)

3)   It’s a reminder of God’s cornucopia of blessing to us through the corporate body of Christ (the name of the generous man who has provided a home for our family in this season is also Jack)

Now, the name Redison there is a little bit of a back-story to...

 It sounds like a family name, right? Ha. Not quite… 

Our eldest child, Lucy, “tried on” many different names for this baby throughout my pregnancy. She would stick with one and call him that for anywhere from a few weeks to a month or so, and then would move on to calling him another name. One day in recent months she began calling him “Redison”.  I asked her how she came up with that name and she replied, “Well, I like the color Red…and it sounds better than Blue-ison.” She is my logical thinker, and so this answer did not surprise me in the least. After looking it up and realizing that it really is not a name at all (not even Google picks it up…), I mentioned that we probably should think about a name that has some sort of meaning to us- something that would be significant for both him and our family. She tootled off, still calling him Redison, not paying much mind to her mama’s right-brain antics. …or so I thought. Then, several days later she came back to me with excitement in her voice, announcing, “I found the meaning of ‘Redison’!” Intrigued, I asked her what it was. “It means ‘the blood of Jesus’…and that means something to us” she replied. 

 Well, how can I argue with that? Clearly she had made that definition up, but the blood of Jesus does mean something to us. It means a lot to our family.  Included in that 5yr old’s faith-answer is this mystery of not fully understanding what the blood of Jesus has done for us, but knowing that it did something great, something world-changing, life-altering, and something worthy of building our life upon. That is the faith I long to have- the one that embraces mystery but is not afraid to drop our anchor in deep waters.  

 

The other cool thing I like about the name “Redison” is that to me it means, “son of the Redeemer”. When I was looking up the meaning of different names, I realized (which is probably common sense to everyone else…) that names ending in “-son” literally mean “son of…” Sharing the same root word as “redeemer”, “Redison” is a reminder to me that this son of my flesh is really a son of one greater than me- he is the son of my Creator and my Deliverer.  Jesus, our "Redeemer", is the One who purchased us back from the depths of depravity, and has given us a Hope that can never be shaken by the broken nature of this world. And that Creator, the one that knit this bundle of joy together in my womb, is the One who will lead, guide, and sustain my son through all of his days. 

Jack Redison- welcome to the family! 

…and get ready, buddy. It’s a wild ride...