And He Shall Be Called…

We have struggled and struggled over what to name little man #3, but the funny thing is, I’ve known it since naming Josiah.  I just never dreamed I’d need three boy names :)  There has always been these three Bible boy names that have stuck out to me as special for some unexplained reason and it was just a matter of being led to use them at the right time.  The reason we’ve struggled over the name is that it is so close to Josiah’s name, but it is clear that it is the right name.  So, he will be called…

Joshua Adin!

I’ll get right to the drawbacks of the name so that I can tell you why it’s so great.  Like I said, we worry about the similarity to Josiah’s name and the confusion that will follow, but since we already confuse Josiah and Elijah constantly, we are thinking it won’t matter much!  The only other drawback is that we aren’t crazy about the nickname “Josh”, but we didn’t like “Jo” for Josiah, either, and that hasn’t even come up yet and he’s lovingly called “Siah” instead.  Maybe Joshua will gain an endearing original nickname, too!  The other thing is that, when writing shorthand, we often refer to the boys as “J” and “E”, so that will also be thwarted.  Josiah is excited to be referred to as “JJ” (Josiah Jacob), or “big brother JJ” as he says, instead. :)

So, why did we choose it?  I wish I could choose names just based on liking them, but then I’d never narrow it down, so it has to speak to me and mean something to me.  Jacob plays the role of nixing the ones he doesn’t like then says which one he feels fits.  As mentioned, Joshua has always been a front runner for us, but just wasn’t right before.  It means “Lord is My Salvation” with a spiritual connotation of “Bold Leader”, but we liked it more for the Biblical story.

Joshua was who God chose to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land after 40 years of wondering in the wilderness.  This was after he told the people that with God’s help they could have had the land 40 years earlier, an act that somehow threatened the people so much that they wanted to kill him.  God rewarded his faith by transforming him to their leader.  Finally, this homeless people group invaded a land of strong people and amazingly conquered them in battle after battle. 

Early on, God repeatedly encouraged Joshua telling him not to be afraid and to take courage.  I don’t know if Joshua lacked confidence and needed to be encouraged or if it was just that the task before him was so great that God preempted it by reminding him that He is the Almighty and the source of strength.  Either way, I find it powerful that God encourages us when he places a task in front of us.  Although I’ve read it through my fair share of times throughout life, I re-read it in the last few months and was impacted by God’s faithfulness to do what he says he’ll do.  When the people took matters into their own hands, they failed.  When they followed him, they thrived.  It was a reminder I needed at this point in my life.

Joshua is also the one who said those famously repeated words “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”, a conviction that I hope our Joshua grows up to claim as his own.

As for Adin, it literally means “Slender” (ha ha) and has a spiritual connotation of “Promise to God”.  Biblically, he was an ancestor of one of the clans that was restored to Jerusalem and Judah after the Babylonian captivity, generations after Joshua led the people into this land.  It seems to complete the picture, speaks of God’s faithfulness, and reminds me to follow God’s instruction with confidence, yet never gaining so much confidence in myself so as to veer off course. 

I never dreamed we’d use the name Adin, since it is a little more mainstream and modern than is our norm, but when we came across it, it just clicked, seemed to fit, and we both looked at each other knowing that was it. 

I love how the stories of these names fit together in that God proved faithful in his promises to them and that they both signify the completion of that promise, no matter how long it took.

So there you have it!  I hope our Joshua Adin is also a strong man who lives for, seeks, trusts, and proclaims God boldly as he follows God’s will for his life to fulfill His promises.