What's in a Name

I gave up on believing in coincidences a long time ago. There's a lovely lady at work who works a later shift so I only see her a couple of hours a day when our shifts overlap. Since we're on the phones non-stop I never get to talk to her much but she is always sweet and friendly. We say hi, wave and we always give each other a hug before I leave at the end of my day. Just recently she heard a friend call out my name and she said "Jayne? I thought your name was Laura."

We laughed together.

"Laura? Where did that come from?" I asked. Neither of us knew, since we never were formally introduced. I only knew her name because I looked at the name tag on her cubicle. Anyway, she calls me Laura every time she sees me now and we have a laugh together.

BUT after just a few weeks of this, the lady who runs the equine therapy program where I have started volunteering said to my rider, "Laura will help you do that."

My eyes popped out of my head.

"Laura? Where did that come from?" I laughed. She gave me a second look and said, "I really have no idea, Jayne. Sorry!"

I told this to my coworker the next day and her eyes popped out of her head. "Really?"

I know people get names wrong all the time but for two women to call me the same wrong name, with a surety that it was my name, within the same month isn't something that happens all the time.

My coworker wasn't laughing about the mistake this time. She said, "You know, in the Bible when someone's name changed, like Abram to Abraham and Jacob to Israel, God had something great for them. Maybe God is changing your name spiritually. I wonder what Laura means literally."

I looked it up right away on my computer.

"It says it means 'She shall have.'"

My friend's eyes grew big again and she smiled broadly.

"You shall have."

I can't wait!