Oh yah! That’s my boy—the one with all the dance moves! It’s official…this super white family just moved up a notch on the coolness factor. (Seriously, we are so white that even with spray tans we end up white, white and whiter). Our boy Comerson was given our last name this week. Yep, he is officially Comerson Allen!!! We have received our adoption decree.

I cannot even begin to tell you how that has made my heart do somersaults inside.

When you wait for something for a really long time, it is even more meaningful and gratifying. As an adoptive-parent-to-be, there are days…no months…when you seriously have doubts. Doubts that this day will ever come to be. Doubts that anything is happening. Serious doubts about whether or not God has this thing under control.

Throughout scripture, we see God give people new names.

He changed Abram to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah, Jacob to Israel, Saul to Paul, Simon to Peter and so many more. In the Bible, names were weighty and carried deep significance. God often changed a person’s name to remind them who they were in Christ. For example, Saul, a great persecutor of Christians, was renamed Paul, meaning “small.” It served as a reminder to Saul who was once a prominent leader among the Jewish people that he was being called to a life of humility, serving and preaching to the Gentile people. Other times, God renamed a person to encourage them to be the person God had called them to be. He gives them a new name, not because they deserved it, but to the contrary, God sees them for who they will be! Simon was an obstinate, impulsive, easily angered, argumentative, and prideful man. Then Jesus comes along and renames him (see Matthew 18). Our obstinate Simon is renamed Peter, meaning rock. We might have only seen the man who tried to walk on water but failed, who refused to have feet washed by Jesus, who rebuked Jesus, who off the solder’s ear with a sword, who deserted Jesus during his death, and who infamously denied Christ three times. Well, guess whom Jesus saw? He saw a pillar for the church. He saw the man who would bring three thousand souls to Christ on the Day of Pentecost. He saw the man who would someday write Scripture. He saw the man who would courageously give his life as a martyr for Christ.

Jesus sees our potential, not our past! Take a moment and praise God for that!

 So today I am rejoicing. Rejoicing that my boy has a new name! And I confess, Lord, it seemed like this day would never come. I am frail and forget that you got this thing covered. Forgive me for days spent in worry. Worrying whether or not you could handle this. Thank you for reminding me today that you did not forget. You got everything under control!

I John 3:1, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!”