A Name No One Expected

In 2019, Maria Gonzalez stood in a hospital room in San Antonio, Texas, holding her newborn son. Her mother-in-law had already monogrammed blankets with the name "Alejandro IV" — four generations of firstborn sons carrying the same name. The family assumed it was settled. But during her pregnancy, Maria had felt an unmistakable conviction. She and her husband had prayed for months, and the name that kept pressing on their hearts was Samuel — "heard by God" — because this child had come after years of infertility and desperate prayer.

When Maria announced the name, the room went quiet. Her father-in-law left without a word. Cousins whispered. "No one in our family has ever been called that," her sister-in-law said, almost exactly echoing the words spoken to Elizabeth two thousand years earlier.

But Maria's husband Eduardo picked up his phone and typed a message to the family group chat: "His name is Samuel. God heard us."

In Luke's Gospel, Zechariah's neighbors expected tradition. Elizabeth and Zechariah chose obedience. When Zechariah confirmed the name John — meaning "the Lord is gracious" — on that writing tablet, his sealed lips were finally opened, and praise flooded out.