What's In A Name?
My father in law Bill Overhauser passes away in January at the age of 66, suddenly and way too soon, with so much life left to live. He was affectionately known around here as "Papa Bill" and will be greatly missed. A few short weeks later, we also lost his 86-year-old father, Bill Overhauser Sr. our beloved "Poppi O". It’s been a rough season for this family to say the least, as we have all been feeling the void and grieving the loss of two very memorable lives. My husband and my girls and I traveled to Sacramento to attend a celebration of life for my father in law. Friends and family gathered to tell stories and share memories and we laughed and cried and ate and loved on one another like never before. It was a celebration that would have made him proud.
The Overhauser family is big in number and stature and everyone looks alike. The family resemblances in features, mannerisms, habits, hobbies and tendencies are uncanny!
Although the house was filled with both friends and family, you could definitely spot family. These genes are strong and apparent even in my children. People commented all weekend long on how much my daughters look like their grandma and their aunt.
(It’s ok… I’m secure; I know I’m in there somewhere.)
My in-laws and my “grand” in- laws, as well as some extended family, all lived in the same sleepy gated community in California and everywhere I went from the coffee shop and the grocery store to the dry cleaner and the nail salon, somebody knew our family and these men. In fact, many folks told me a sweet story and offered their condolences and it was evident that their name was well known and they were loved in their community.When there was a break in the celebration one afternoon I decided to go for a run and needed to borrow a long sleeved shirt from my daughter. It was a little cooler and grayer out than I had anticipated so I borrowed the only long sleeved shirt she brought, a warm up volleyball jersey of sorts with our last name on the back. I thought nothing of it except it had long sleeves and I was cold, but as I ran the loop of the little neighborhood,
I became particularly aware that the name “OVERHAUSER” was spread big and bold shoulder to shoulder across my back. The weight of that concept, of wearing that name, became almost tangibly heavy.
I ran and I cried thinking, what an honor it was to wear your name and run through your town. I felt like I was running a race proudly given the honor of wearing the family name. Was I doing it justice? Someone even honked….At me?In support perhaps?To say, ”Hey I see you, I’m on your side.”“I too love that name!”And I cried some more.As I ran I had these thoughts.
Do I look enough like my heavenly father that people see Him in me?
Can people tell I belong to God and His family? I read in the Bible that we are created in His image and we are his sons and daughters.Do I have His ways about me, His DNA? Is it stronger that other things in me, does it show in my mannerisms, my tendencies, my hobbies and my interests? When you see me do you see the family resemblance? Does my life point back to Christ?
I wonder if I am representing the name of Christ well, in my community, to those who know Him and those who are yet to meet Him.
Amongst friends and family do I honor His memory? Am I running the race well, knowing that although the name on my jersey may say OVERHAUSER, the name written on my heart reads JESUS CHRIST, my heavenly father?There is no doubt when I look at myself in the mirror, I see my mom, and I even see my dad. I laugh like her, I move
like her, I say things and do things and move in ways that resemble them, because I belong to them. The DNA is there. It’s a fact.
I can embrace it and be proud of it or I can try to shirk it off, embarrassing them and shaming the name.
But The DNA is still in me. I can’t outrun it.
(nor do I want to for the record.)
I also belong to Christ, whose spirit lives in me and transforms me from the inside out,
causing me to look more and more like him everyday. The transformation began the day I invited him in. The day I became his daughter. I have been doing Priscilla Shirer’s Bible study, “The Armor of God” and in week three she talks about the righteousness that you receive when you become a Christian. She says,
“You must make a conscious choice to act in a way that is consistent with your new life in Christ. And because the spirit is always there to provide His renewing to your mind, your potential of producing spiritual fruit is available and doable. Rely on the perfect nature of Christ in you (His DNA) to affect you every sing day.”
I know my husband wants to leave a legacy as an Overhauser. Making his father and his grandfather proud. It is a name every member of this family
(even lil ole me)
is honored to wear stretched shoulder to shoulder across our backs. And there is also a spiritual legacy to be left as we wear the name of Christ written on our hearts. He has done the work for us, the DNA is there and all we have to do is let it shine through.
In the same way, let your light shine before others,that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Matthew 5:16