"God Delights in You!"

I almost missed the article. It contained a picture of a young girl from India holding a certificate showing that she had changed her name. It didn’t seem like much of a story tucked in the corner of an inside page of the newspaper.

But the story is really heart breaking. You see in the rural poor areas of India girls are considered to be a family liability. Boys are viewed as potential heirs, family heads and wage earners. By contrast girls are a “liability” because their families will have to provide a dowry in order to arrange a marriage for them. The result is female fetuses are systematically aborted.

Or, in the western Maharashtra state, where the language is Marathi, many living girls are given the name “Nakusa”, which means “unwanted.”

Can you imagine being a person with the name “unwanted”? Can you imagine the humiliation, the teasing, the negative self image?

The news story I saw highlighted a young woman named “Nakusa” changing her name, the result of a progressive initiative in Satara state to allow girls named “Nakusa” to change their name. They get official documents and school records are changed. Of course, questions still remain. Is the emotional damage already too great? Will they really get a new life in a culture that insists on remembering the old name? Only time will tell.

Consider this: To a people who had suffered countless indignities: "You shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. . . . You shall no more be called Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married, for the Lord delights in you. . . . And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you" (Isaiah 62:2-4 EST)

Know this: You are loved. You are precious. You are wanted! God has given you his family name. You are his beloved child. God smiles when you dance, and live and love. God’s eye twinkles when he thinks about you.

The gift of God’s family name is not to be taken lightly. Carry it with pride.