When He Comes Again

People often assume that my daughter Scarlett is named after the fabulous female lead of Gone With The Wind.  While, it is true that I once spent a whole day of Christmas vacation in seventh grade completely entranced by that movie, she is not named for Scarlett O'Hara, not directly anyway.

Actually, I knew and worked with a girl named Mari-Scarlett who was just a ton of fun, sweet, beautiful, and good-natured, and it confirmed for me that I liked the name Scarlett, so I tucked it away for future use.

The third thing that kind of sealed the deal for me is that my Grandmother Gladys loved the color red, and as a tribute to her (and my own affinity for the color), I made sure she received the name Scarlett.  (Steve wanted to name her Ivy, but I knew the moment she arrived that she was definitely a Scarlett!)

And she has been true to her name "Scarlett True."  True being another family name.

Scarlett is passionate, compassionate, and full of life and has been that way since before she took her first breath.

I recently told Scarlett that her name means "red", so she always says, "That's red for me, because I'm Scarlett," as she chooses red items over other colors whenever she can.

I also told her that the scriptures say that when Christ returns to the earth in his glory, he will be wearing red.  Now she likes to remind me of that fact, so her name has become a special reminder of not only who she comes from, but who she is to look forward to seeing again some day.  (It's not "maher shalal hash baz", but it's meaningful to us nevertheless!)

Scarlett moved from Nursery to Primary on Sunday (that's what we call the sunday school for children ages 3-11), and I just had to peek in on her between classes.  She was sitting in the front row with all of the other "Sunbeams", proudly wearing an "I Am A Child of God" crown.  The crowns, which were handouts for her lesson, were cut out of various colors of construction paper.     Of course, her crown was red.