Finding Meaning in Jessica's Life

Today's feast day is in honor of the Most Holy Name of Jesus.  This reminds me of the famous quote from Shakespeare, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet." (Romeo and Juliet)   Why celebrate the name of Jesus?  Well, in a world that often takes for granted this blessed name of our Savior (using it quite blasphemous at times), I think it is quite fitting to take the time to remember the story behind this name.  After all, if the name of the baby we just celebrated at Christmas was not important, why would the angel have made such a point to tell BOTH Mary and Joseph?  Jesus...God is with us...Emmanuel...foretold by the prophets.

The celebration of the name of Jesus is so important to our tradition that the entire month of January has been dedicated in honor of this teaching.  I found this understanding of the feast very helpful:

"The feast is meant to impress on Christians the dignity of the Holy Name...Among the Jews God's name expressed His essence, Yahweh, i.e., I (alone) am who am (and cause all else to be). The Jews had the highest respect for the name of God, a reverence that finds continuation in the Our Father: "Hallowed be Thy Name.  the name of the Redeemer should not be accidental, of human choosing, but given by God Himself. For His name should express His mission.  With Jesus, therefore, the name actually tells the purpose of His existence. This is why we must esteem His name as sacred. Whenever we pronounce it, we ought to bow our heads; for the very name reminds us of the greatest favor we have ever received, salvation." (Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch)  

So, how does this relate to Jessica?  Well, I was trying to decide which child should be remembered today.  We are visiting my mother and I told her what I was doing...She said to go through the list of girls and she would choose the next one for the blog post.  As I was going through the list, she stopped me with Jessica..."What does her name mean?"  I did a quick Google search to find out that Jessica means "He sees."  She said..."That is the one you need for this feast day!"  Jessica is hope for those left behind...God does see the pain and suffering in this world and if we call out HIS NAME...JESUS...He will help us through this time.  We must bring honor and respect back to the name of Jesus and we will find that our world will be a better place.  It is not the fault of Jesus that we do not seek Him in our lives...He does not judge and allow these things to happen...the children and adult victims did not deserve to die...it was not a part of God's plan...it was the free will of man that made this happen.  God takes this part of the plan...shaking His head...and brings good even during the tragedy to assure us of His plan and His victory over evil.  He sees that the evil will not succeed.

Jessica (6 years old) was a real leader in her family...considered the rock...CEO of the family who would often help in making decisions.  She would not let any challenge get the best of her.  She also had a great love for anything related to horses or cowboys...she always wanted a horse and a pair of real cowboy boots.  She loved to dress up and loved going to movies.  She also loved whales!

When designing Jessica's quilt, we wanted to make the rock the center of the quilt.  Our hope is that the rock (created with cross material) in their family could now be centered more on Jesus as their rock.  After all, this family has lost a huge strength in their family, which needs to be filled.  The hope and love of Jesus is a wonderful way to fill that void in their lives.

Today is the TENTH day of Christmas...ten lords a leaping....The Ten Commandments!  There could be no other idea that should lord over our lives than these natural laws given to Moses by God.  These basic laws should be an internal recognition of our desire to live for God.  May we look upon these laws, written in stone to show the permanence of these rules throughout all time, as the basic foundation of all our decisions.

We are having another wonderful day of Christmas with family.  We hope you are enjoying this blessed time of the year as well.  God bless!