Ezra

So we decided to name our baby, Ezra.

Meaning of name: help/helper.

The other and I have been having a hard time thinking of a name for the baby and for months, we came with just about nothing. There was a time early in the pregnancy where he mentioned Samuel and when I kept thinking about it, I didn't mind settling with it. He had also mentioned name him, David, but since I call my other that, I said I don't feel comfortable calling two people David. But when we both suddenly landed on Ezra and read about him in the Bible, we felt that this would be the perfect fit for our baby and who we are as parents.

When we told my brother about this name, he got so excited and he said that he didn't like the name "Samuel", it was too Asian. I asked him if he knew who Ezra was in the Bible, and immediately he described exactly who Ezra was. And he said, that's a perfect name and it fits you guys perfectly!

Key Scripture that speak about Ezra:

• Ezra 7:6 -- "...He was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses that the Lord, the God of Israel, had given, and the king granted him all that he asked, for the hand of the Lord his God was on him."
• Ezra 7:10 -- "For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel."

In the Bible, Ezra was a direct descendant of Aaron the chief priest. His zeal for God and God's law spurred Ezra to lead a group of Jews back to Israel during King Artaxerxe's reign over the Persian empire. The book of Ezra provides an account of the Jews' regathering, of their struggle to survive and to rebuild what had been destroyed. Through Ezra's narrative, he declared that they were still God's people and that God had not forgotten them. The book of Ezra talks about the rebuilding of the new temple, the unification of the returning tribes as they shared common struggles and were challenged to work together. Later, after the original remnant had stopped work on the city walls and spiritual apathy ruled, Ezra arrived with another two thousand people and sparked a spiritual revival. By the end of the book, Israel had renewed its covenant with God and had begun acting in obedience to Him. Ezra's leadership proved crucial to the Jews' spiritual advancement. The overall purpose of the book of Ezra was: God keeps His promises and when God's people remained faithful to Him, He would continue to bless them.

We pray that the hand of the Lord would be on our baby, and that he would be a lover of God's word and and use it to start revival in his generation.