Faith, Hope and ……

One of these days I’m going to write a novel.  Two of the characters are going to be named Shirley Goodness and Mercy.  They are going to be stalkers who follow the main character around all the time.   Some of you will get that in a minute.

Lots of people name their children with biblical names.  I did.  My daughter’s middle name is Elizabeth.  My son’s name is Andrew.  Good biblical names.

There are lots of others.  Mark, Peter, Paul.  You don’t find many Zaccheus’ these days, but if you did they would probably climb trees.

There are a lot of Faith’s, aren’t there?  And lots of Hopes.  However, you don’t find the third of that series getting much action for a name.

You don’t find many Loves out there.

Why is that?

Of course, I am referring to these in 1 Corinthians 13;13.  Paul writes, “But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

I wonder.  We love to name a little girl Faith.  We love to name a little girl Hope.  We just don’t seem to love to name a little girl Love.

Could it be that if we had three girls and names them Faith, Hope and Love that we are declaring that one of them is greater than the others?

Do we subconsciously know that Love is the greatest of these three so we leave Love out as a name?

Do we somehow know that we really fail at Love sometimes and we don’t want to place such a burden on someone?  They are supposed to be the greatest.  We don’t want them to fail at Love and not live up to that high standard?

I don’t know if that’s the answer.  Perhaps it just doesn’t roll off the tongue as well.

Or perhaps it’s because someone else already has that name.  After all, God is Love.

What do you think?  Why do we have girls named Faith and Hope, but not Love?

Pearl Harbor and Christmas

Today is the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  I don’t know how people felt 70 years ago when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.  Because of 9/11, I believe I can come close, but I don’t know exactly what it was like back then.  I don’t know the exact feelings of terror that might have swept across our country as we faced an enemy in Japan, Germany and the other Axis powers.

I definitely don’t know what it was like to be entering the Christmas season with that type of fear looming over what we consider a season of joy.

However, Christmas gives us the proper response to that fear and all other fears and uncertainty that we face.

Christmas gives us Christ.

Christmas gives us hope.

Christmas gives us courage.

Christmas gives us grace.

Christmas give us forgiveness of our enemies, as we, who follow Him, have been forgiven.

Pearl Harbor was a time that defeat felt overwhelmingly near.

Christmas gave us what overcomes all fear and defeat in our lives.

Thank you, Lord, for giving us Christmas for every Pearl Harbor in our lives.

What Pearl Harbors in your life has Christ helped you overcome?