What’s in a name? “Happy Birthday, Noah!”

God graciously gave us Noah in the middle of our first anniversary of Daniel’s last days with our family on this earth. Daniel’s “last days” on this earth began October 13th and ended November 19th. God gave us Noah a year later on November 5th when we were experiencing afresh our grief over Daniel’s suffering and death. Though we were very thankful for the Rest that Daniel had entered into on that early morning November 19th, our hearts were extremely heavy from our memories of those final days.

Well, right in the midst of our heaviness God surprised us with a son (and it was a surprise! We were not expecting to adopt our second son for another two or three months.). We received a call at 9:00 pm, Tuesday, November 4th, asking us if we were interested in an African-American baby boy. “Yes,” we answered, “when would we be able to pick him up?” “Tomorrow morning!” We could not believe it! We were going to have an addition to our family in less than 24 hours! God sweetened our grief over the death of Daniel with the joy of new life in a third son!

You ask, “Why did you name him Noah Daniel?” The answer is found in Genesis 5:28-29 where we find mention of the first Noah in recorded history. “When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son and called his name Noah, saying, "Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.” In giving us our second adopted son in the midst of our freshly awakened grief, God was granting us a gracious measure of relief and joy. So we named him Noah Daniel as testimony to the gracious God who gives rest to His people.

The ultimate fulfillment of the rest pointed to by Lamech in Genesis 5 did not come in the son he fathered, but rather in the Son God gave. Noah only brought creation a slight measure of rest. The Son of God came and dealt the curse of sin the decisive blow so that all who are weary and heavy laden may come to Him and find true, eternal rest for their souls (Matthew 11:28-29). Noah’s name is not meant only to remind us of God’s gift to us a year ago in the midst of our grief. It is mainly meant to remind us of God’s unspeakable Gift in the person of His Son some 2000 years ago.

So with great joy and gratitude in our hearts we say to our one year old son, “Happy Birthday, Noah!!”