What's in a name?

Yesterday the endocrinologist told us that are sweet little girl’s MRI on her brain came back abnormal, though that is all she said and would not disclose any further info. Appollo called the neurologist and despite the nurse’s determination to not reveal the results, Appollo was able to pry out the gist of the results. Basically what we know is that our girl had a brain hemorrhage during or shortly after birth (not uncommon for premature or small babies). This led to a condition known as Periventricular leukomalacia (aka... PVL if you can’t pronounce the long medical words). From all that we read she has a decent chance of developing cerebral palsy or epilepsy. We of course wept together at this news, but it was not what you might think. There was a touch of remorse, but it was not all or even mainly remorse. You see, we have a hunch that Aggie is going to teach us more about life than we are going to teach her. Appollo told me a story about a young lady she saw at the hospital after Aggie had failed another hearing test. This young lady, probably in her 20's, appeared to have a disability and was wearing a hearing aid. She was also a volunteer at the hospital and had a cheerful pleasant spirit. Appollo had the thought "Is this what Aggie is going to be like when she gets older?" It wasn't a disappointing thought to her. The Bible says “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong”. We live in a culture that values the powerful, intellectual, beautiful, and popular. We idolize celebrities and athletes. In fact, I read that 30 years ago a doctor would recommend a child with cerebral palsy be put in an asylum and forgotten. But who reflects more of our Father’s glory... the rich athlete or the 20-year-old girl whose life has been full of trials who joyfully serves in a hospital? I’m not trying to spiritualize disabilities as if they are sanctifying in and of themselves. They are not. Everyone needs Christ. We’ve already started to see some of Aggie’s feistiness to assure us of her need of a Savior. But there does seem to be a naivety and childlikeness in some of the folks I’ve met with disabilities. And I think God can use them to shame the rest of us “normal” people. Time will tell if and how much Aggie is disabled. But our hope and prayer, whether her body and mind is strong or weak in the world’s eyes, is that she would glorify God. What’s in a name? I’m not sure but I think it’s fitting that Aggie means “kind, good, pure, and chaste”. May God make her a reflection of those attributes!