Here I raise my Ebenezers

Preparing to go horseback riding

Lizzy on Haley; Ada on Bud Lite; Maddie on Jackson…and me, on Jelly Biscuit.

Caleb has been a bit more of a reluctant Harry Potter fan than some of the rest of us (it’s a good thing my love for him is unconditional—Caleb, that is). I just finished reading him The Prisoner of Azkaban.

Sitting around a leisurely summer breakfast/lunch/munchie one day with the kids, I commented, “You know, I wanted to name one of you Hermione, but Dad wouldn’t have it.” 

Even Lizzy appreciated her father’s judgement. 

Jason also ixnayed Anastasia and Ebenezer.

I don’t remember what inspired Anastasia, maybe the Disney movie; but I do remember my argument for Ebenezer.

Here I raise my Ebenezer;

Hither by Thy help I’m come;

And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,

Safely to arrive at home.

An ebenezer was a big stone raised as a monument to a time when God specially met with and helped His people. The Israelites set them up occasionally so they would remember the help God gave them in that place and to inspire their children to ask what it was for.

Is it entirely fair that we use “Scrooge” as an epithet? At the end, thanks to the ghosts, Ebenezer Scrooge remembers ever after to keep Christmas as he should, thereby living up to his first name. 

An exciting announcement!

Fair or not, my children recoiled when I told them I wanted to name them Ebenezer (just the boys, it’s not like I was going to name them all Ebenezer)—probably thanks to Scrooge’s infamously iniquitous early life.

But joke’s on them. Whether I call them that or no, they all are Ebenezers. 

Each of them is a monument to God’s faithfulness to me. He has given me four children. And He has been faithful to them too, giving them living and growing faith. My children are like living stones, reminding me of His great grace to us. They are Ebenezers all.

* Robert Robinson, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”