What’s in a name, too dry

Last night at church, Bro Danial preached/taught on some of the names of God. Some of the information he got from a series of lessons we had in FBI and some were added through internet searches. All the names of God, when studied in parallel, add personality and dimension to the character of God and allow us to know Him more intimately. No one name can do that. That is why the Bible gives us so many names we can call God by; each emphasizing a different aspect of His willingness to interact with us – His children. Sometimes in pleasant ways - in blessings. Sometimes in painful ways – in trails and chastisement. It was a good lesson. A reminder that we too often do not give God enough credit (praise) for all He does for us. Both seen and unseen.

The lesson reminded me of a name I heard recently, Abcde. Seriously. Pronounced Ab-sa-dee. The first question is, why would a parent give a child a name that is certain to be problematic throughout their life? It may seem cute at birth, but the effect over a lifetime would be less than cute. Another that popped into my mind was La-a. Pronounced La -dash -uh. I would be curious to know just how many times the owner of that moniker had to tell someone how to pronounce it as a name. By definition, a “hyphen joins two or more words together while a dash separates words into parenthetical statements”. But La-hyphen-uh would be even more confusing. On the hand, a three-paragraph name would be more in line with a name given in the language of the Ents – the “tree herders” of Tolkien fame. (Note the hyphen and dash used in the preceding sentence.) I thank the Lord my parents picked a recognizable Bible name to label me. Although when I state my name in introductions people hear Kent, Ken, Ben and the like. The good part is my name is easy to spell out for those who misheard. My parents could have named me Dodo or Ichabod – both Bible names. But I would have had to repeat then just about as often as my given name over the course of a lifetime.

Very early on in the course of our engagement I changed Mama’s name. Or, at least, I gave her a pet name that has stuck with her over all these years. I think she is more apt to answer to my name for her than to her given name – especially when I say it. Early on in our courtship, a friend of ours heard me call Mama by her pet name and he later used that name to address her. She was none too pleased, and she let him know. It was, and still is to her, a term of endearment. Now, 36+ years later it would not be as offensive to her, but I am the one who calls her by that name; very few others know or use it. I think it still rankles Grandma when I use it. I think it still lets Mama know how dearly I love her.

On the farm front, the number of trees I will likely lose this year is climbing. Neither of the peach trees is responding positively to the care we are giving them. The miniature in the garden is almost surely a lost cause. The large one in the back yard is very nearly dead – or going dormant. I am not sure which. Both of the plum trees in the garden are looking bad. All of them will be cared for through the remainder of the year to see if they will come back to life in the Spring of next year. The blackberry bushes are drying up no matter how much water I give them. Again, I will not know until Spring if there is any life remaining in them. But it is looking doubtful. At this point, the only plants doing well are the thorn trees and the cactus. And even they are starting to show signs of heat stress. One year when we lived in Bowie, even the cactus shriveled up and went dormant. We are not there yet but we are only in late July. We may get there soon.

Hopefully, the wells hold out through the drought.