Her Name

This post is a little "late" in coming. I wanted to write about our little lady's name. Ever since choosing to keep Mekonen's birth name because it was part of his story, part of his life in Ethiopia, and added to that, the great meaning it has (noble one, the next to rule), we decided we wanted to choose names for our children that had some meaning to us, or were significant to us in some way.

We knew from the start if we had a girl, her middle name would be Rae. Many of my close friends and family call me Ray (how I've always spelled it). So we knew no matter what we chose for a first name, that would be the middle name. Jon liked the spelling "Rae" so we went with that.

I remember exactly where I was when I mentioned the name Evangeline to Jon. I was at the intersection of 38th street in downtown Indy at a red light and her name came to me. I'm not sure how I originally thought of it, but I sat there and texted it to Jon (no, I wasn't texting while driving). I said, "How about Evangeline Rae." He texted back these three words, "I like it." As soon as I read that, I knew for sure that was her name. You see, Jon wasn't a fan of the majority of the names I liked (mostly because of the meaning factor), so when he responded with "I like it" I knew that was it! This was somewhere in the 3rd trimester and we continued to talk about a couple other names we liked, but towards the end decided if Baby Oren was a girl she would be Evangeline Rae Oren.

What's crazy is that several weeks after we had already chosen the name Evangeline, I got a text from my sister Amy. She says, "I have a really cool girl's name for you. Evangeline and call her Evie. I started cracking up! I mean seriously, what are the odds that she would pick the exact same name and nickname we did, especially when it's not a very popular name. I guess that was a sign that this little lady would be Evie. :)

Evangeline- pronounced Evange-LYNN

Evie (nickname)- pronounced ee-vie 

Evangeline comes from the Greek word euangelion which means the Gospel and "to bring good news." The name itself doesn't actually appear in the Bible. However, the Bible message of "good news" is described in the entire Bible generally, and described specifically in the Gospel books of the Bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John).

The Gospel, or "good news," is the heart of Christianity. The Gospel is called the "good news" because it addresses the most serious problem that you and I have as human beings, and that problem is simply this: God is holy and He is just, and I'm not. At the end of my life, I'm going to stand before a just and holy God, and I'll be judged. I'll be judged either on the basis of my own goodness (or lack of it), or on the goodness of another.

The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus lived a life of perfect goodness (righteousness), of perfect obedience to God. But not only has Jesus lived that life of perfect obedience, He offered Himself a perfect sacrifice by dying on the cross for our sins. He rose again, so that at the end of my life I won't be judged on the basis of my goodness (which would fail miserably), but I would be judged on the basis of Jesus' goodness, which is perfect.

He has done for me, what I couldn't possibly do for myself. I couldn't possibly be good enough. So how does the perfection of Jesus secure us for eternity and make us right with God? The Bible makes it clear that it is not by trying to be good and perfect, only Jesus is perfect. But it's by faith alone. The only way you can receive the benefit of Jesus' perfect life and death is by putting your trust in Him- and in Him alone. When you do that, you're declared perfect by God, you're adopted into His family, you're forgiven of all your sins, and you will spend eternity in Heaven. Now that is GOOD NEWS.


How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news. Who announces peace and brings good news of happiness. Who announces salvation, and says to Zion, "Your God reigns!"

Isaiah 52:7