The Name He Gave Her

On September 1, 2005, three days after Hurricane Katrina swallowed the Lower Ninth Ward, Marcus and Denise Williams stood in what had been their living room. The waterline stained the walls at seven feet. Photo albums floated in brown sludge. Everything they had built over fourteen years of marriage was ruined.

That afternoon, standing in the wreckage, Denise told Marcus she was pregnant.

He could have despaired. He could have said the timing was impossible, that they had nothing left to offer a child. Instead, Marcus put his hand on her shoulder and said, "We're going to name her Hope."

That is exactly what Adam did in Genesis 3:20 — and we almost miss it because of where it falls in the story. God has just pronounced judgment. The ground is cursed. Death has entered the narrative. Shame, exile, and suffering stretch out ahead like a long highway with no exits.