Naming Jonan

I woke up Saturday morning with one thing on my mind: naming our son. I went to Jeff and told him this is the morning, let’s name him now. Jeff smiled and showed me his phone; he had been up for a half hour researching name meanings and recording his findings. The Lord leads us together yet again.
We both wanted to name him based on meaning, not that we don’t love “cool” names, but we deeply desired meaning over “cool” in this time.
The word that came to mind right when I woke that morning was “giver”. I had a strong sense that this word should be part of his name somewhere. As we prayed about this word it came to mind that God’s Son lived a life much shorter than others could have imagined, particularly his mother. But God was a gracious Giver and gave him for this very purpose. May I note here that I am not equating Jonan with the Savior of the world, but I am comforted to know that God knows our pain, and is already redeeming this time in our lives.
Jeff and I did vote by secret ballot for Jonan’s first name…it was unanimous. And his second name was discussed and agreed quickly on together. As noted in our video Jonan Eilam’s name tells a story. His first name tells of who God is, our gracious Giver; and his second name tells of who he is, an eternal soul.