"Arise, Shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you." (Isaiah 60:1)

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HIS NAME SHALL BE CALLED WONDERFUL

Excerpted from an Article by Rev. Donald L. Rose

“And His name will be called Wonderful” (Isaiah 9:6).

Think about the baby lying in a manger. Now, while the picture of that baby is in your mind, think of His name. Before He was born, the angel said His name would be Jesus. At that name— Jesus—every knee “should be bowed in heaven and on earth…. There are many names of God…such as Jehovah …Jesus and Christ” (True Christian Religion 297).

Of the many names, let us think especially of the name, “Wonderful.” Hundreds of years before the Lord was born, it was written in the book of Isaiah that certain names would tell us about Him. One of them is “Prince of Peace.” Doesn’t that name by itself tell you a lot about what the Lord would do for people and what He would give to people? He would one day say, “My peace I give unto you.” And so, when He was born, the angels sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace…” (Luke 2:14).

In Isaiah, also, it is said that His name would be called “Immanuel”, which is really a way of saying “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). This name of Immanuel or “God with us” leads up beautifully to the name “Wonderful” for there is something wonderful about what we mean when we say, “God with us.” If God is with a person, is that person safe? Yes, because if God is with them, He is taking care of them. You know the Psalm that says, “I will fear no evil, for You are with me” (Psalm 23).

If your wish for someone is that God will be with him; it is a wish that he will be safe and that all things will be well with him. Did you know that the word “goodbye” comes from saying quickly, “God be with you” or “Good with ye”? To say goodbye, then, is to wish the Lord’s care to be with someone until you meet him again.

We call the Lord’s care “Providence.” And you can be sure that the name “wonderful” belongs to the Lord’s Providence. Think of the wonderful blessings in the phrase, “God be with you” or “God shall be with you.” In the Heavenly Doctrine for the New Church, we are taught that “This signifies the Divine Providence of the Lord; for when the Lord is with anyone, He leads him, and provides that all things which happen, whether sad or joyful, befall him for good: this is the Divine Providence” (Arcana Coelestia 5303).

So as you picture the Lord as a baby and say the word “wonderful”, think first of His Providence. He wills to have the lives of us all in His hands. He wills to have the government upon His shoulder, and this is what He wills for His people: “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand” (John 10:28). The Lord also said, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” If He is in the midst of people, they will be led to what is happy. To be gathered together in His name is to be gathered into something wonderful.

On the first Christmas, shepherds saw a baby in a manger, and they went and told others how angels had spoken of this baby’s birth. “And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds” (Luke 2:18). The Lord’s birth is indeed something to wonder at, for it is such a wonderful event! This wonder is expressed in the words of the prophet Isaiah, who wrote,

For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful,
Counselor,
Mighty God,
Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace.

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