Fred by Deborah Thomas

I get a kick out of the name Fred.

“My name is Fred, they call me Fred.  When I get tired, I go to– ‘DUH’……(long pause, waiting for the listener to say the answer)…BED, Fred!” the students yelled the answer and laughed at the doofus way I sang.  Then I’d continue the song with a new word that rhymed with Fred… “My name is Fred, they call me Fred.  My favorite color’s always–duh…..RED, Fred!”  And the kids would laugh again.

A favorite teaching exercise, I’d make up all kinds of words that rhymed with Fred, to extend the song, then invited them to come up with one.  It was a hoot.  I remember using dead, head, lead, Ned, Ted, shed, wed.  I wish I could sing you the tune, it was so cute.  I think it was from Sesame Street some years before–do you know it?

My grandpa told me I had an uncle Fred whose hair was red.  Ha ha!  Mother always wanted one of her children to have the red hair, but that didn’t occur for another two generations—I have two grandchildren with red hair.

In high school, a new student arrived in concert choir.  ‘Freddy’ had the red hair, gorgeous bouncy red hair. I admired herShe was an accompaniest like I was, only a much better one.

Fred in the Sesame song. Uncle Fred. Freddy in choir.  All make the name Fred a friendly one for me.

I bet you have a name or two you especially like and with good reasons.  I heard tell that God will give us a new name in Heaven. How fun.  With the imagination He has, how beautiful our names shall be!

I appreciate He knows me by my given name and my name to come.  He’s familiar with my inner self. “You have searched me and known me, O Lord; You know when I sit down and when I stand up; You discern my thoughts from afar….You are intimately acquainted with all my ways.”  (an American translation from The Complete Bible)

Recently I misplaced our address book.  I wracked my mind for memory traces of its whereabouts and prayed for revelation.  But they were hurried prayers, prayers on the run and the book’s location remains an enigma.  When I read these scriptures, I realized the Lord witnessed me at the exact moment I misplaced the book. He see me sit down and stand up, so He has to know what I was thinking when I laid that book in an odd place. I’m on a trip right now, clear across the country.  God discerns my thoughts  a thousand miles from that book.  If I give Him my time, and draw close to Him, I believe He will reveal the secret of where that book is hiding.

What is a name you enjoy and why?

Can you draw close to the Lord and let Him tell you a secret?