What's in a Name?

What to name our child was something that Jonathon and I consulted with God about for many weeks. We knew that God was knitting a child together in my womb and that He knew that child by name. We prayed asking God to reveal that name to us. We had some criteria for the name we wanted. We wanted something not on the top 100 name list from the last year! Really, that was our only criteria. With a last name like Mills, we needed something somewhat unique. The name we chose came to us from out of nowhere and we immediately knew it would be the name of our little girl, Lydia Grace. Lydia is a scriptural name; the name of a woman who was pivotal in the missionary journey of Paul. Lydia was known to be a follower of Yahweh, but had not yet met Jesus. Lydia was the first European convert. Not only was she the first, but all of her family believed and were baptized that day, indicating that she was a leader and respected in her home. During that missionary journey, her home housed Paul and the other apostles during their time in Philippi and the church later met in her home as well. Lydia was a businesswoman; she was the seller of purple cloth, the cloth of royalty. She was well known and respected in her community. We were honored to use the name of such a wonderful Christian woman for our little girl. We greatly anticipated her arrival!

The color purple will always have special significance to Jonathon and me. This spring purple is everywhere! When we went to Colorado, I noticed all the purple wildflowers. When I go shopping, I’m drawn to purple clothes. I noticed that the crepe myrtle in my front yard has purple blooms; I had never paid attention before! Purple was the scriptural Lydia’s color and we wanted that color to be special to our Lydia Grace. We wanted to make sure that she knew of the heritage of her name! Not only the heritage in the color purple, but in faith as well. We prayed for Lydia’s salvation and our friends prayed as well. One of the girls that Jonathon went to seminary with knitted a beautiful baby blanket for Lydia and said that with each stitch she prayed for Lydia to come to Christ. We looked forward to leading her to the Lord, taking her to church, going on mission trips, and praying with her. We prayed that we would hold her in an open hand for God to use and that her life would be used to lead other’s to Christ.

Little did we know that her time here on earth would be so short. Lydia lived only 14 days, but her life touched hundreds of people. People have expressed that they have come to a deeper relationship with God through Lydia’s story. We have yet to hear that someone has come to Christ through her story, but her story is still being told. I have read of little one’s who have died being unseen evangelists in a sense, leading their siblings to Christ. I pray that Lydia Grace’s story will be like that of the scriptural Lydia and that all of her house will be saved. We know that Lydia Grace is now in Heaven with Jesus. I hope that she has met the scriptural Lydia and knows the heritage of her name. Mom and Dad love her and miss her very much!