What's in a name?

     "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here"

                    2 Corinthians 5:17    

     I got married over the weekend. My husband and I were having a conversation on Sunday that really got my thinking.  We were laying there and I asked him how different he felt now that we are married.  He answered not much in his mind had changed, because he was committed to me and had made that decision months ago and this just made it legal.   However there was big change that happened for me. As a woman when we get married we change our name-our identity.  I now would belong to him. 

  The week leading up to the wedding he had asked me what my Facebook name would become once married.  Now you know something is official if you go and change it on social media.  Now I had both my maiden and married name from my first marriage on Facebook.  So the dilemma arose would I just add the new last name and what would I drop.  I had kept my married name after my divorce as honestly the hassle of changing everything seemed tasking and wasn't that big of a deal at the time. However, the name still kept my attached to my ex and his family. So the day of the wedding I did indeed go in and change my name.  I dropped all names and fully took on the identity of my husband and added just my new name.

   I began thinking about how it does mean different things to be a bride verses a bridegroom.  I then thought about how we(the church) are referred to as the Bride of Christ and that when we enter into a relationship with Him we must change our old identity.  The verse in Corinthians states that we are a new creation.  Saul of Tarsus went by Saint Paul after his encounter with God. He wanted to be identified as a believer of Jesus Christ.  Just as I chose to drop any name that would identify me when any man other than my husband once married when we enter a relationship with God we must drop anything that would identify us with our past. It maybe a hassle and require some work on our behalf but what greater honor than to be identified as part of the family of God.