Taking upon us the name(s) of Christ.

One of our missionary elders spoke on devotion in sacrament meeting today. One of the topics that he touched on was taking upon us the name of Christ. The most obvious way that we LDS do this is in the name of the church: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. LDS for short, and to avoid the too-frequent repetition of the Lord's name. Just as we call it the Melchizedek (higher) priesthood, to avoid saying The Holy Priesthood after the Order of the Son of God.

The elder went on to list some of the names of the Savior that we find in the scriptures: the Prince of Peace, the Holy One, the Redeemer. And my mind started to drift onto a rabbit trail, so I wrote down a prompt and redirected my focus to his talk.

If you look in the Bible Dictionary under "Christ, names of" there are four subheadings:

1. Names, titles, and concepts of the Lord Jesus in the Old Testament (25 links, not counting the cross-references to other scriptures)
2. Names, titles, and concepts of Jesus in the Gospels and Acts (I lost count at 65, and I was maybe a third of the way down that section.)
3. Names, titles, and concepts of Christ in the Epistles (stopped counting at 30, and there were lots more)
4. Names, titles, and concepts of Christ in the book of Revelation (42? I got a little distracted.)

And this does not count the references to Christ in the Book of Mormon or the Doctrine & Covenants. You could take just one of those names and keep busy for hours, bouncing back and forth among the scriptures, making notes in the margins, journaling. My favorites are the ones from Isaiah which Brother Handel set to music: Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

How could I take those names upon myself? It will be eons before I have progressed spiritually to a point where my children can call me capital-W wonderful. But I can live a life here filled with wonder and a greater sense of awe. I can take counsel from the Spirit and counsel my descendants in righteousness. I can, with the help of the Spirit and by the power of the Atonement, gradually accrete more of the virtues and practices of godliness, becoming a pearl of great price. I have the promise that, as I honor my temple covenants, learn to subdue the grosser inclinations of mortality, and strive to follow my Savior, I can prepare to live the kind of life my Heavenly Parents have. As a daughter of the King, I have the potential to become peaceful and wise. I am a princess in embryo. As I find my ancestors and provide saving ordinances for them, I bring them even more closely to their Savior than they were during mortality. As I share the gospel in its fullness with my friends when they express interest, I am a messenger of the covenant.

This Sabbath has not been wasted.