The Name: Jonah Alexander

A friend suggested that I write something on Jonah's name after my post on Rowan's name (here). Writing some of this down for future reference is something I've wanted to do anyway (not that I'm going to forget, but it is something I would love to have in written form). As I'm thinking about his birthday I realized that it is time to write this down.

When Jim and I started Dating, one of our best friends in college (who is now Jonah's Godmother) and I were teaching a preschool sunday school class at church. I asked Jim to come along and help. I wanted him to help us... okay, honestly, I wanted to see how he was with kids (and he passed this 'test' with flying colors - but that is another story). Anyway, as we were dating and things were getting more serious a little boy named Jonah came one day and I said "I really like that name". Jim looked at me and said "me too" and it was left at that.

When we started talking about names for our first babe it came up right away and the more we thought about the name the more we liked it and here are the reasons why (in no particular order).

1. It isn't too common.

2. It means 'dove' in hebrew, which is a symbol of the people of God.

3. The dove also symbolizes peace. Jonah's middle name is Alexander, which means keeper of mankind. We chose the names together to mean peace keeper. We pray that our children will seek justice and peace.

3. The 'sign of Jonah' is what christ talks about before his death referring to his resurrection.

4. Jonah is often used in art as a type of Christ.

5. I love the biblical character of Jonah. He is very human and is unafraid to be angry with God. He sins, but also learns to receive grace. He is a broken vessel, but God saves an entire city through Jonah's reluctant obedience. I long for Jonah to know that he can and will make mistakes, but God's grace is bigger than his failings just like in the story of Jonah.

* oh, and after Jonah was born and named we remembered that our first date was to see the Veggie Tales movie "Jonah" (I should point out that we were really good friends, so it was more a 'let's go see a movie' after we had a nice dinner out and "Jonah" was what happened to be playing." Jim wasn't trying to impress me with a veggie tales movie :o)

It is funny how much you can think about the name and the meaning before a child is born and now Jonah is just Jonah. He couldn't be anything else.