Agie began to be visibly uncomfortable with the situation. He stared at each one in turn, and was obviously trying to digest what he thought were the implications of their attention. Then he suddenly tightened his grip on me, glared down at the group of kids and warned them, "MY Aunt Becky!" (In other words, don't get any ideas; she's MINE...and I'm not sharing!)
During the three years we were in Dallas, from 1989 to 1992, we babysat Agie and his older brother "Tito" (Patrick) part-time, so they wouldn't be spending the whole workday in the daycare center. They were very smart little guys, and left their marks on our hearts. Agie was a demonstrative child, easily giving hugs, and his favorite snack was "gwapes and waisins". Tito accepted hugs but was much more interested in whatever he was curious about at the time. He was a precocious talker, and I think maybe one of the worst disciplines for him when he acted up was to be put into "time out", where he had to stay in one spot...and be quiet! (They are both adults now, and called Patrick and Adrian, but to me, inside, they'll always be Tito and Agie!)
Many other activities filled our hours and days and weeks: school, church, etc. Dan and Debbie were in a small Christian school, and had their sports and band events, rehearsals and practices. (Dan played football and basketball; Debbie played the flute.) We couldn't do much in the way of deputation, it being necessarily confined to whenever the kids had a vacation from school.
In all this, our trusty "steeds" were just that - trusty. The car we had bought for $1 in Miami was a large, older-model maroon four-door, and I named it The Wombat (which is a very dense animal). Sometimes we called it the "BMW", but that just meant "big, maroon wombat"! We needed another car, since I was the one who shuttled the kids to and from school, and did most of the other errands while Germán was at work. Our second car was small, blue, with two-doors, and I named it The Blueberry. When we bought Dan a car some time later (he would be in the U.S. while we were in Ecuador), I named it The Roadrunner. It was a cynical name because it had trouble working up speed! It sure took its time - would never have worked for a drag race!
These weren't the first of our cars I had named. In Australia we had a little old one named "Pancho López". When we returned to Ecuador, one of our first cars was an ancient van with a rounded front, just about the shape of a bumble bee...so I named it La Bunga (bumble bee in Spanish). Then in Shell we had an even more ancient car (it was REALLy old), so it got named Methuselah.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who has named cars! Some of you reading this probably have. It's fun, isn't it?!! (You know, I wonder if God ever has nicknames for us...!?)
God gives an overwhelming importance to names. He himself presents various ones of His own, and each one tells us something about Him. (Sort of like...if you didn't know anything about me, but heard someone call me "Aunt Becky", you'd know that I had at least one nephew or niece. Of course, with God it's on a fantastically larger scale.) God changed several people's names in Bible history when they were going to have a change of direction: Abram became Abraham; Sarai became Sarah; Jacob was given the name Israel, and Jesus called Simon by his new name - Peter. But the most important thing that can happen to our name is for it to be written in God's Book of Life. And that can only happen when we become His children and He our Father, and Jesus our Savior and big Brother. Is your name written in the Book of Life?
If it IS...wonderful!! If it's not...hadn't you better do something about it?
Have a great week! Join me next time.
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