I asked Faith Cora if her baby brother knew his name; and if he looked at her, when she called it. She immediately ran to his resting place on the sofa, put her little mouth down to his ear and hollered, “CHAIR WEAF”!! Sure enough, he turned and looked.

Mama Jan is struggling a little tiny bit to replace Chair Leaf with Abram. While theoretically I agree that Abram Michael is a better name for a year 2016 non-hippie child, it’s hard to let go of Faith Cora’s whimsical moniker.

I also inquired if he had a nickname, and sure enough he does: Pillow.

Our conversations range all the way from her honest-to-goodness-application-grasp of a vortex and an interloper to imaginary talking squirrels named Salt and Pepper. Her words and knowledge make me think, smile, and oftentimes swell with pride.

I hope my life and conversations with my Father are doing the same. I know he wants to smile at me because he told me so in a win-win loop around blessing in his book of Numbers:

Then the Lord said to Moses,

“Tell Aaron and his sons to bless the people of Israel

with this special blessing:

‘May the Lord bless you

and protect you.

May the Lord smile on you

and be gracious to you.

May the Lord show you his favor

and give you his peace.’

Whenever Aaron and his sons

bless the people of Israel in my name,

I myself will bless them.”

Numbers 6:22-27

Would it hurt your feelings if I used your given name as my habitual just-for-added-emphasis word? If I didn’t mean anything personal by it, but just used it to punctuate my sentences; and if I coupled your name with a few other choice words—would you mind? Could we still be friends—and would you overlook my casual disrespect—especially if something really bad happened to me and I needed your help more than anything else?

Jesus’ words are so powerful. I often have to pause and mull—because how else could I ever absorb their fullness? I can only imagine his disciples trying to drink from that torrent of word-wisdom during those last hurried hours before the cross.

Now I am departing from the world;

they are staying in this world,

but I am coming to you.

Holy Father, you have given me your name;

now protect them by the power of your name

so that they will be united just as we are.

During my time here, I protected them

by the power of the name you gave me…

John 17:11-12

Name. Power. Protection. Amen.