"His Name Will Be..."

a long awaited announcement

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

I’m starting to write this from my favorite coffee shop on Christmas Eve. Christmas jazz music is playing from a vinyl record, an adorable toddler just walked past my table with her mom and waved to me with a toothy smile, and I’m enjoying an unexpectedly free gingerbread latte courtesy of their rewards program. Merry Christmas to me!

I realized this morning that next Christmas, I won’t have the same freedom to wake up and leave on a whim, to sit in a coffee shop to think and write without making sure a baby is fed or taken care of, not needing to be back on any kind of schedule. We’re about three months away from our due date, and the reality is settling in for me. So, I’m savoring this season of solo coffee shop dates while I can!

Today I’m grateful for space to think through the long list of things rolling around in my mind lately — Advent Bible readings, baby registries, raising a boy, all the things. As I was reading the Christmas story again, I realized so much of Christmastime centers around a birth narrative — a couple, actually! - and I can’t help but have a different lens on these stories this year.

“You will have a son…”

My husband Kyle and I were 99% sure we were having a girl. I’ve always envisioned myself with a daughter, my own little “women’s ministry” at home, and Kyle would be a precious “girl dad.” When we went to our 20-week anatomy scan, we asked the ultrasound technician not to announce the gender in the scan but to write it on a card for us to read on our own later for a more intimate “gender reveal.” Although she honored our request, as soon as she placed the probe on my belly, it was pretty clear we were having a boy! She quickly moved the probe, distracting us by pointing out the heartbeat and wiggly arms and hands.

After the ultrasound, Kyle and I drove to a brunch spot in Columbus to have our own little “gender reveal.” We ordered our coffee and eggs and opened the card, revealing what we then suspected — It’s a boy!

There are two instances of a similar announcement, although an angel announces the coming son instead of an ultrasound tech, and the shock is much more valid coming from a virgin and not a married woman with a literal 50/50 chance of having a boy or girl. haha

“And the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.’”

Luke 1:30-31, emphasis added

And then…

“But as [Joseph] considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us).”

Matthew 1:20-23, emphasis added

Mary and Joseph also received the emotionally-layered news that they would have a son. The promised offspring of Eve was coming through Mary. The Son of God would take on flesh, born as a baby on earth.

“And his name will be…”

This week, I was listening to a podcast episode from the 2021 She Reads Truth Advent study. The podcast guest, Nathan Tasker, made a comment that stuck with me: Jesus was never named throughout the Old Testament. We see repeated promises of a messiah coming, who would be born of a virgin, but Messiah is a title, not a name. We read mention of a coming Savior from Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), a suffering servant (Isaiah 53:1-5), a Better Prophet than Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15-19; Hebrews 3:3-6), the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6-7)…

But we don’t know His name.

At the beginning of the New Testament Gospel narratives, after 400 years of silence, and thousands more years of waiting for the offspring of Eve who would crush the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15), we meet Him. We finally know His name.

“…His name [will be] Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

For the first time, I sensed the joy, relief, and sacred realization of that announcement. The faithful followers of God who trusted in His promises believed that the Messiah was coming, but He was nameless to them, in a sense up until this point.

Since hearing we were having a boy, Kyle and I have talked and prayed through boy names, since our boys’ names list had a total of zero ideas before our ultrasound. As we brainstorm, there are some we like the sound of, but not the meaning. We believe names carry significance, a prayer of dedication, a summary of what you hope to be true of this child’s life as he or she grows into the person God has designed them to be. Names can tell a story — possibly of one’s origin and destiny.

Kyle, reading through the Lord of the Rings series, recently came across a timely quote from Treebeard, a character in The Two Towers, regarding names:

“‘For I am not going to tell you my name, not yet at any rate.’ A queer half-knowing, half-humorous look came with a green flicker into his eyes. ‘For one thing it would take a long while: my name is growing all the time, and I’ve lived a very long, long time; so my name is like a story. Real names tell you the story of the things they belong to in my language, in the Old Entish as you might say. It is a lovely language, but it takes a very long time to say anything in it, because we do not say anything in it, unless it is worth taking a long time to say, and to listen to.’”

We’re waiting to share our son’s name until he arrives, partially because we don’t know it yet (!), but also….what a beautiful moment that will be, to get to hold our son, look at his face, and speak aloud for the first time the name of the soul we prayed for and God chose to entrust to us.

Jesus’ name, on the other hand, took an even longer time to be announced, not because God didn’t know beforehand, but because it was worthy of listening to. Worthy of our attention. The song of waiting crescendoed with the angel’s announcement of His Name:

Jesus — Yahweh [God] saves.