Five Minute Friday – What’s in a Name?

I’m participating in this week’s Five Minute Friday writing challenge.  If you like to write or need some inspiration and encouragement be sure to check it out. 

Today word prompt:  Name

For the first 3 months of my life I didn’t have a name because I was given up for adoption at birth.  On my original birth certificate, it only recorded my birth mother’s last name.  Legal paperwork recorded my name as Baby Girl Dawson.

Three months later, my parents Frank and Gayle Bunts adopted me and I was given the name Susan Harriett Bunts.  From that day on, I was someone’s daughter and sister to my brothers Michael and Patrick. 

My first name was given by my brother Michael.  He had a girlfriend named Susan and later he had a cow that he named Suzy.  The name Susan means lily and is of Hebrew origins.  When I think of a lily, I think of Easter and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The name Harriett was the name of my father’s mother whom he loved greatly.  Harriett is French and means home ruler which is kind of appropriate because I love being home.  “There’s no place like home.”   

At the age of 49, I was given a new last name when I married Christopher Wachtel and I was welcomed into the Wachtel family.  I wish I had the opportunity to meet my in-law Leo and Ruth Wachtel.  I look forward to meeting them in heaven.  In the mean time I am blessed to know the rest of the Wachtel family. 

Even though I’ve lived with those names for many years, the name I value most is Christian.  At the age of 32, I finally recognized that I was a sinner and repented of my sin.  I recognized that there is a God to whom I will give an account and that He is the God of the Bible.  He made a way for me to be forgiven through His Son Jesus Christ and His sacrificial atoning death on the cross.  Christ’s death paid the penalty for my sin and for all who repent believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sin. 

God assures believers that He has called us by name.

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name; you are Mine!”

Isaiah 43:1 c-d

Everyone who is called by My name,
And whom I have created for My glory,
Whom I have formed, even whom I have made.”

Isaiah 43:7

Though I didn’t have a name for the first three months of my life, God knew me and He called me by name.

¹³ For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
¹⁶ Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.

Psalm 139:13-16

Before God laid the foundations of the world, He knew and called me.

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, ⁴ just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.  In love ⁵ He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, ⁶ to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 

Ephesians 1:3-6

²⁸ And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. ²⁹ For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; ³⁰ and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

Romans 8:28-30

Though I did not have a name for the first three months of my life, God knew me, He knew my name and He called me to salvation through Jesus Christ. 

Though I may have been considered an accident by my birth mother, God planned my life before He laid the foundations of the world. 

When I think about who I am, first and foremost I think of myself as a Christian and that truth overshadows everything else in my life.