Why We Changed His Name…

When my eyes beheld my second-born baby boy, tears began to roll down my cheeks. Overjoyed by what a miracle he was, emotion spilled over. His deep brown eyes were beautiful. I remember holding him close and rejoicing over his beautiful life. I loved everything about him—his sweet skin, his toes, his little hands, his pudgy lips, his rosy cheeks. And when his little mouth turned into a square as he cried I would whisper, “Mama is here….don’t cry baby.” Soon he would be snuggled up in my arms, fast asleep. I soaked up every minute.

As I spent the first minutes with him, I looked deep into his face and suddenly felt puzzled. Love surrounded our first moments, but something was different. He wasn’t who I thought he would be.

For months Mark and I had been referring to this little bundle of joy as Miles and then as I was looking into his face I realized he was not a Miles. I felt shocked that I was feeling that way.

Suddenly Mark looked up at me and mentioned that he didn’t really look like a Miles. Feeling some relief, I said… “He’s an Owen.”

Silence filled the hospital room as Mark and I stared into Owen’s little face.

Soon laughter echoed off the walls as Mark and I agreed to change the name to Owen. We literally had to get over the fact that we would not be calling him Miles. We shocked ourselves by making this change at the last minute.

Goofy smirks lingered on our faces as we introduced him to people. And in a strange way I felt guilty. It was probably due to the fact that a few of his Christmas presents were already packaged with a scribbled Miles written on top. Nonetheless he was an Owen.

Secretly I had always loved the name Owen and was so excited to get to use the name for my precious son.

Owen means young warrior. We love this meaning because we want our son to be a warrior for Jesus. We want him to be one used by God as the kingdom of God advances on the earth. We want him to be mighty and strong because the Lord is powerful in his weakness.

After deciding on the name Owen, we changed his middle name to Miles which means, “Merciful” in German, “Who is like God?” in Hebrew, and “Soldier” in Latin. Our prayer for Owen is that he will be a merciful warrior. What I mean by this is that Owen will be one who makes war against sin and is serious about aligning his heart with God’s, but as he exposing sin and calling people to align their hearts with God, He will do this in mercy. Because Owen will be mercied by Jesus, he will in turn show mercy to others. He will show them Jesus while simultaneously helping them see their own sin.

Our verse for Owen Miles is the end of James 2:13, “Mercy triumphs over judgment.” Our prayer for his little life is that he would help many see the mercy of God so they escape the judgment of God for their sins. Jesus is a just God and all human accounts will be settled either by what Jesus did on the cross or by an individual spending an eternity in hell. We hope that through Owen’s life many will come to know the saving knowledge of Jesus.