So, I wasn’t born with the name, “Kace,” but nearly. I was named, “Kimberly Chernock,” but the story goes that my dad wanted a boy, so he nicknamed me KC from the time I was a little baby. Over the years I have been KC, Kim, Kimberly, and Kace. And not surprising, each name change came with a change of perspective or a change of geography – a new name for a new person.

God knows that a name change can be a powerful representation of a new person. Jacob, who had cheated his brother, and then had been cheated by his uncle, was returning to his home to make peace with the brother he had cheated. He had already begun his journey to redemption – God gave him a new name to coincide with his new perspective on life. What are you called, and what does it mean to you?

Genesis 32:22-32

The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had.

Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the hip socket, because he struck Jacob on the hip socket at the thigh muscle.