Name

Sometimes in life we are blessed with a truly extraordinary friendship – I have been blessed in this way with my friend called Bin. Actually she is the brains behind this blog. She is the one who puts it all together and makes it look so great. For 17 years we have been the closest of friends. We now call ourselves sisters and our families think of each other as family.

Together over 17 years we have journeyed the good: The birth of seven children (my last child and her six), miraculous healing, marriage reconciliation, wonderful New Years together, fantastic holidays and just great fun. We have also journeyed the bad: Marriage separation, mental illness, wayward teenagers, and Mark’s cancer, long term illness and death. We have laughed a ridiculous amount, cried together and prayed and sought God together. They have been 17 very blessed years!

At the beginning of this year Bin found out she was pregnant with her sixth child, and in May we found out that after five handsome sons Bin and her husband Bring (his nickname) were expecting a daughter. I remember her ringing me and telling me and Jasmine when we were parked at a shopping mall, and we just sat in the car and cried with happiness at the blessing our dear adopted family was receiving. How exciting – a little girl!

Very early on the 22 September Bring & Bin welcomed their little girl into the world. With great excitement we raced to the hospital. They named her Sadie, which means Princess – so incredibly appropriate for the youngest and only girl but also because this little girl is a daughter of the King of Kings!

For ten weeks we all enjoyed getting to know this little bundle of joy, and then in the blink of an eye it all changed. After what was supposed to be a routine doctor’s check, Bin and Bring headed to the hospital and within days they were told their precious baby was very, very sick with a serious heart condition.

Thirteen days later on the 14th of December at just about 12 weeks old, Sadie left us for her eternal home prepared for her by Jesus as he promised in the Bible in John 14:3.

Tragedy has struck my dear precious friends. I cannot take their grief and pain. Grief and pain that I am all too familiar with, but this is a baby – it seems so senseless.

But senseless it is not in our loving Heavenly Father’s eyes because Sadie had to be born to live forever. You see, Sadie has always been in God’s mind. In Jeremiah 1:5 it says

God knew all about Sadie… God knew Sadie… God had holy plans for Sadie. But none of that would have mattered if Sadie had just remained a thought. Conception brings life and the minute Sadie was conceived God’s thought was given life! Our Sadie had to be born in order to live forever with Jesus.

And it is the same for Jesus. He had to be born so that we could live forever.

Over 2,000 years ago God came in the form of a human baby to make a way for all of humanity to be able to live forever. Through Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection ALL of us are given a way to live forever in heaven with our holy and loving heavenly Father.

Sadie has been taken from us. She is out of our vision. But Sadie is not lost – she is home. She is now a citizen of heaven, which is where we all will be one day if we have accepted the truth of Jesus. One day we will be with her and we will understand the joy that although she was here for such a short time, she had to be born to live forever.

Death is tragic but it is only tragic for those left here grieving our loved one. But for Sadie, for Mark, for all the others who have died knowing Jesus, death was their welcome home!

Sadie had to be born to live forever!

AND JESUS HAD TO BE BORN SO THAT WE COULD ALL LIVE FOREVER.

This Christmas CELEBRATE!!!

Celebrate Jesus’s birth for the truth that it truly is – OUR WAY HOME!!!

But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:57 (NLT)

I hated being pregnant. I was not one of those woman who glow – oh no! A better description of me would be; I grumped my way through pregnancy. I had terrible morning sickness with them all and then for the remaining months every part of my body seemed to hurt and I was so ridiculously tired a late night was 8:30pm. In my opinion pregnancy pretty much sucked (I know you are all thinking, “why on earth did she do it four times then?!”) There was however one part of the pregnancy months I did enjoy – the chance to choose my baby’s name. I loved finding names, sounding them out, adding middle names and even changing my mind.

Our name is so much part of our identity. It’s how people know us and call us. Our name is something very special to who we uniquely are.

I love the story of Zacchaeus in the bible found in Luke 19:1-9. Zacchaeus was a very influential and apparently very short man. The bible doesn’t specify how short but when he was standing in a crowd he couldn’t see a thing.

Zacchaeus desperately wanted to see Jesus – just see him. He must have heard a lot about this man called Jesus and wanted to know what all the fuss was about. So one day he joined the crowd in the street who had all come out because Jesus was in town. I imagine the scene something like Queen Street in Auckland at the Christmas parade – too many people to possibly move with ease and often you are on your tip toes swaying one side to the other trying to see over the people in front with little success.

Zacchaeus too was stuck behind a whole bunch of people and unable to see a thing. But undeterred the bible says “he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree.”

How many influential men do you know that would climb a tree to have a look at someone let alone run to do it, in his curiosity he threw aside all inhibitions and pretense and did exactly that, run and climb a tree – just so he could see this Jesus.

As Jesus walked by he stopped at the tree, “looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name, “Zacchaeus!”

CALLED HIM BY NAME!

Astonishing! Of all the people Jesus could have noticed that day, he noticed the man up a tree. But not only did he notice him – he called him by name.

It’s the same with you. Jesus notices you and he knows your name. He is calling you.

He is calling you to come to know him better.

He is calling you and saying, “I love you!”

He is calling you and saying, “Let me have your life and watch what amazing things I will do.”

He is calling you to give all your worries to him.

He is calling you by name because he knows your name.

You are not a faceless being in a crowd of millions. You are known, you are loved and you are called by the King of Kings, and Saviour of the world – Jesus.

Why don’t you say Yes to him today?