When you go to the beach, the houses have names.
Cute and catchy phrases are posted near the doors or on the fronts of the houses. Names like “Something Fishy”, “Seaside Serenade”, “Driftwood Cottage”, and “Aftah Dune Delight”. Sometimes a little cheesy, it adds to the vacation getaway, relaxing, home away from home feel.
Streets and roads have names too. Names are given to bridges and landmarks and mountains… a lot of times honoring local and national heroes. Senators and congressmen often get their names used because of the impact they’ve made on their state and city governments. Athletes are often honored too, especially when they’ve brought attention to their hometowns.
Names mean a lot to us.
While most of us don’t have a cutesy name plaque by the front door of our house… we name the places we live.
Depression.
Sickness.
Betrayal.
Divorce.
Financial Defeat.
Failure.
Death.
We name these places and we name these roads and we name these mountains. We name it because we have to live in it and carry it around. With heavy hearts and weary legs, we walk up these summits of debt, pain, and heartache.
There goes Abraham, trudging up a mountain side with a fire in one hand and a knife in the other, his son beside him, knowing that at the top he was going to offer that son, his promised son, on an altar to God.
Weary legs.
Heavy heart.
We trudge along carrying all this weight upon us because of the things that have been said to us, done to us… things we didn’t want, things we didn’t ask for, things we never imagined… but they happened anyway and now here we are.
Just like Rachel, she trudged along, pregnant, and in great pain she gave birth to a son who she named Son of My Sorrow.
Just like the wife of the priest Phinehas, when she heard that the ark of the covenant had been stolen and her husband was dead, she went into labor and gave birth and named her son Ichabod meaning “Where is the glory”… “Israel’s glory is gone”.
Can you imagine growing up and hearing your name every day and knowing it meant something bad? That your name was basically a death sentence of despair and hopelessness? When people said your name, it formed a picture of doom and gloom?
We do the same thing when we get up and look in the mirror every day, see our reflection and say “I just don’t know how I will ever be anything but a failure, or I’m just depressed, or I’m not capable of making it out of this crisis.”
Every step that Abraham took, God saw. The mountain he climbed was named Moriah, “seen by Yahweh”. God saw every step he took. God saw his faithfulness, and He provided a ram. Abraham built an altar and named that place Jehovahjireh which means “the Lord will see to it”, “the Lord will provide”.
That mountain was the place of God’s provision.
So hang up a sign. Give your place a name.
Forgiveness.
Healing.
Restoration.
Peace.
Renewal.
Because every place you are is a place for God to see and for God to provide.
“And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.”
Genesis 22:14
-Rebekah Lilly