Name Calling

“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

Philippians 2:10-11

Whenever I visit my elderly cousin, she quizzes me about my children’s names.

“Your kids have them African names?” she says.

“Yes,” I reply.

“But they’re American,” says my 92-year old cousin.

“African-American,” I say.

We laugh and I once again explain the meaning of their names and the hope that my husband and I have for them in the names that we have given them.

Christmas Lights and Daffodils

“In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” John 1:4

Outside my living room window two symbols of seasons have converged. Christmas lights and daffodils.

Christmas lights still adorn my bushes—reminders of the holidays and the season not so long ago when snow covered the grass and bushes and most of the trees were naked or wrapped in ice.

Now the yellow heads of the daffodils have poked out and bask in the sunlight. The trees are starting to bud. But my evergreen tree is still decked out with Christmas lights.

Now that the warmer days have come, one day I will take the time to unravel the lights from the bushes and put them in plastic bins until the season rolls around again. But for now I smile as I look out and see the lights and daffodils and contemplate their meaning