I am the Whale

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I'm sure some of you are wondering why I went with Mama Whale for my blog name, as not many women voluntarily refer to themselves as oversized creatures, but in order to explain my name, you must first understand how my husband and I decided on our son's name. 

When we found out we were having a boy, we decided that we wanted to go with a Biblical name.  Something strong and classic, but not popular (like Micah, Eli, or Noah).  So we came up with Jonah, and immediately both liked it.  We both basically knew the story of Jonah, but we wanted to read it again to be sure this was someone we wanted to name our child after.  Well that very Sunday, our pastor preached the story of Jonah, and we knew that that would be his name.  

For those of you needing to brush up on your Bible stories, Jonah was an Israelite prophet who God told to go tell the people of Nineva about Himself so that He could show them grace.  However, Jonah felt that the Ninevites were a despicable people not deserving of God's grace, and so he tried to run from God.  Unfortunately running from an omniscient God isn't a really smart idea, so when Jonah found himself caught in a deadly storm out on the sea, he knew it was because he had disobeyed God and had the crew of the ship throw him overboard so that they would not all perish.  It was then that Jonah cried out to God for help, and in God's mercy (not giving Jonah what he deserved, namely death for disobeying God) and grace (giving Jonah a gift he did not deserve, namely life), he sent a large fish, often portrayed as a whale, to swallow up Jonah, saving him from drowning.  Jonah spent 3 days in the whale, just as Jesus spent 3 days in Hell following his crucifixion, and then God had the whale spit him out onto the shore.  Jonah repented of his disobedience and took the good news of the Lord to the despicable Ninevites, who also repented of their sin and came into the favor of God.  

So it's a story of new life and of second chances, through the belly of a whale, and about 6 months into my pregnancy when I was feeling very large indeed, it hit me, and I announced to my husband, "Our little Jonah is in the belly of the whale, and I am the whale!"