The Name on the Bracelet

When Maria Santos gave birth to her son at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, the nurses handed her a tiny plastic bracelet. On it was printed a name she and her husband had chosen months before: Emmanuel. She held that bracelet between her fingers and wept — not because of the pain of delivery, but because the name carried a promise. Her grandmother in Guatemala had prayed for decades that someone in the family would name a child Emmanuel, "God with us," as a testimony of faith. Now here he was, seven pounds and screaming, and the name was no longer a wish but a person.

The shepherds in Luke's account rushed from their fields to Bethlehem and found exactly what the angel described — a baby wrapped in cloths, lying in a manger. They told everyone what they had witnessed. Mary gathered every word and held it close, turning it over in her heart like a stone worn smooth by a river. And on the eighth day, the child received His name: Jesus. Not a name Mary and Joseph invented, but one the angel had spoken before conception. The name meant "the Lord saves," and it was not a hope — it was a declaration.

A name given by God is never just a label. It is a covenant spoken over flesh and bone. When the Almighty names something, He is announcing what He intends to do. The shepherds saw it. Mary treasured it. And the name Jesus still carries that same unbreakable promise today.