What's In A Name!

Since today has been a nice, slow day as far as Caleb is concerned over his first week and a half of life, Ashley wanted me to give you all a little more background on our choice of name.  For you who know Ashley and I well, you know the probability of us agreeing on a name for our latest child was slim to none prior to him being born.  We just have different preferences that rarely merge into an agreeable selection.  Over the past weeks as we got closer to Caleb's arrival, we, as has become common with our other four children, were preplexed on a name selection! So one night I spent the evening really thinking about it and doing some additional research on names that I felt would fit the long road ahead that our little one had to face.  I quickly singled out the name Caleb.

For a little Old Testament history and reminder, Caleb was one of the key figures in the Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt, and along with Joshua, was the only spy that after seeing the promised land and the Caananites that they must defeat, remained faithful to God and his promise (Numbers 13:6 & 13:30). Caleb was not only seen faithful to God, but that he served the God of Israel with his whole heart. Upon return, he was the first to speak up and say, "let's go and conquer this land that God has promised". It wasn't Joshua but Caleb who was encouraging Israel to follow God in spite of the opposition and fear of the other 10 spies. Due to their "faith", the only adult Israelites allowed to survive the additional forty years of wandering by the Israelites and enter Canaan and the promised land were Joshua and Caleb as a reward for their faith in God. Caleb is called "my servant" by God in Numbers 14:24, a position of the highest honor previously used only for Moses.

As indicated in the story, the meaning of Caleb in Hebrew is "Faithful" and "Whole Hearted," which quickly caught my attention and are the two things that we wish for our son.  Although he will never have a whole functioning human heart, we wish that he live out a life of faithful following of God's word and plan for his life through the reconstructed "half of a heart" that he has been given by this initial and future surgeries.  He is truly a blessing that has bestowed on us by God and our prayer is that he will be used by the Lord in a special way.  A truly "wholehearted, faithful" servant to the Lord is our daily prayer for our miracle child.

Thank you all again for your "faithful" prayers and thoughts for not only Caleb, but our entire family.  Please know that we pray for you all each day as well and are so blessed to have family, extended family, and friends that love us so much. We are so blessed and feel the love of God in this difficult situation we have and continue to face.

Love, Zack