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Monday, October 13, 2008

Almonds: God's idea of an effective surprise? My idea of a baby name?

I recently read a Bible trivia question -- in an ad in the local newspaper, of all places -- that asked, "What sprouted from Aaron's staff in Numbers 17?" I had no idea, and decided I really didn't care enough to go look up the answer. But then later that week when I happened to see mention of this "Aaron's staff that had budded" in Hebrews, I decided the coincidence had gotten my attention enough, and finally looked it up.

I don't know why I had never really seen/noticed this before, but it's kind of a funny story! Well, maybe not necessarily funny, since it's God's response (again) to a large group of complaining, grumbling, challenging-all-authority Israelites, but it's interesting anyway. Apparently some of the people were questioning Aaron's right to be a priest (from what I can understand), so God told them He would answer that question once and for all. Each of the 12 tribes of Israelites were to bring one staff, and write the name of their tribe on it. Then he told them to put them in a specific place and "...the staff belonging to the man I choose will sprout..."
So that was the test -- to see which staff sprouted overnight. Gotta hand it to God for his creativity. But then He gets even more creative...

"The next day Moses entered the Tent of the Testimony and saw that Aaron's staff... had not only sprouted but had budded, blossomed and produced almonds."!! Isn't that pretty funny? Why almonds?? Of all things to choose, I just think that's creative. (There's probably some theological significance and symbolism to it all that I am missing, but I'm ok with that.) To me, it looks like He's saying, "you guys need an answer here, but I'm going to go over the top and have some fun with it all -- and show you more of my character by even giving you almonds!"
It made me think about how He does stuff like that in my life, too. Some little things, some big things that are just "over the top" unexpected blessings or signs that He's in charge, working and active. And that got me to thinking about this baby I'm currently carrying. This one is definitely another sign that God is active and in charge here... and maybe that He has a sense of humor in it all as well.

So I looked up "almonds" as a word in a few different languages, looking for a potential baby name, but the research didn't bear much fruit, if you will. Unless Shaqed is a good baby name? Or Cagla perhaps?

So, then I thought maybe just "Almond" would work. In this day and age with babies being born with names like Apple and Coco, why not Almond? Plus, I've always liked the name "Joy" for a middle name...

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