Ezra Jackson Jones
Why Ezra?
Ezra was a priest, a scribe, and a great leader. His name means "help", and his whole life was dedicated to serving God and God's people. Ezra is believed to have written most of 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Psalm 119 and led a council of 120 men who compiled the Old Testament canon. The narrative of the book of Ezra is centered on God and his promise that the Jews would return to their land, as prophesied by Jeremiah. This message formed the core of Ezra's life. The last half of the book gives a very personal glimpse of Ezra. His knowledge of Scripture and his God-given wisdom were so obvious to the king that he appointed Ezra to lead the second emigration to Jerusalem, to teach the people God's Word, and to administer national life. Ezra not only knew God's word, he believed and obeyed it. Upon learning of the Israelites' sins of intermarriage and idolatry, Ezra fell in humility before God and prayed for the nation. Their disobedience touched him deeply. His response helped the people back to God. Ezra's example of humble confession led to a national revival. Ezra was a humble, obedient helper who served God with his whole life.
That is our heart for our son. That he would know God, His Word, and obey it. That he would be a man of courage to stand for God in a world that so often doesn't while humbly loving and seeking restoration for those that have turned from God. We don't know his personality, gifts, interests or life plans and have no expectations for those things. We simply pray for the heart of our child to grow into a heart that loves the Lord with all his heart, soul, mind and strength...as Ezra did.
Jackson simply means "God is gracious". And we have hearts full of praise as we see God's grace in our lives. He gave us such a heart for children and we just couldn't wait for a home full of them, but could easily be in a very different set of circumstances right now. Mckinley didn't have to do so well born at 26 weeks and we didn't think we could have children without fertility...but here we are! We know that we don't deserve these blessings and can easily see that God's grace is on us and in our lives. He is so gracious. And we will get a precious reminder of that every time we look at our little Ezra Jackson.
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