A New Name for God

Editor’s note: We recently invited our readers to share their personal Christmas stories. Here is one of the responses we received.

I learned a new name for God in December of 1983. My wife, Lisa, and I were newlyweds, and we had moved to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in August of that year. As Christmas approached, we were homesick, but we had no funds to get back home.

To make matters worse, Lisa’s mother had died in January, four months before we were married. This would be her first Christmas without her mom. I knew she really wanted to be home with her family, and I really wanted to make that happen for her. It was over 1,300 miles to Lisa’s house. After looking at every option, I realized that there was no way we could go home for Christmas. We were resolved to spend our first Christmas in our small seminary apartment and make the most of it.

One day, another seminary friend who lived nearby asked to speak to me. We walked into the laundry room in our apartment building. I remember it like it was yesterday. He knew that Lisa’s mom had died and that this was her first Christmas away from home. Jimmy told me that he was part of a group of people who called themselves “Jehovah Jireh.” I have to confess that though I was a first-year seminary student, I had never heard of Jehovah Jireh. He explained that it was a Hebrew name for God that means, “God will provide.” He then handed me two plane tickets and said, “No one should spend their first Christmas away from home, especially this year. Lisa needs to go home to be with her family.”

I was shocked. Overwhelmed. Grateful! That was the day I learned a new name for God. He is indeed Jehovah Jireh! He provided through some friends what was impossible for us to obtain on our own. To this day, when I hear someone say Jehovah Jireh, my mind sometimes goes back to our first Christmas. I learned a new name for God, but it wasn’t in a seminary Hebrew class. I learned it in a seminary laundry room.

By the way, the baby in the manger is the ultimate expression of Jehovah Jireh. On that first Christmas, God provided a sacrifice for our sins.

Keith Shorter is pastor of Mt. Airy Baptist Church in Easley.