Why We Named You 'Caleb'...

Caleb, your Mom and I have always had big ideas about you - who you will be and what you will do. A lot of those ideas have come from our love of God and what a godly man should be like. That was a big reason why we chose your name to be 'Caleb.'

You see, a long time ago, God was leading a group of people into a new land. The people wanted to know if this new land was going to be a good one, since they had just left a very bad place. So, they sent twelve spies into the land to check it out. What they saw there was very good. There was a lot of good food and nice places to live. But, there were also giants living there who were scary and mean. Some of the spies looked at those giants and lost their confidence, not just in themselves but also in God. However, one of the spies, along with only one friend, still thought that God was bigger than any giant. His name was Caleb, too.

Many years later, that same people were finally allowed to go into that good land to take it over for themselves. Caleb, by that time a very old man, was still trusting in God and was a leader of his family. When the time came to see which family would get the different parts of the good land, Caleb asked that his family be given the part where the giants lived. He still wasn't scared, knowing that God was with him, and God helped him beat the giants.

So, we named you after that man so you might be like him. We want you to love and trust God even when everything is scary and no one else trusts Him. We want you to see that God is bigger than any problem or enemy. We want you to lead other people to follow God and beat giant problems.

Those are our hopes for you and the reasons we named you 'Caleb.'