Acacia Joy Hammond
One of the first things you should know about me is how to pronounce my name. “Uh” as if you were pausing to think of what to say next, “kay” as in the letter ‘k’, “sha” as in ‘Shalom”. Although, I do enjoy the variety of pronunciations. In the waiting room they read off, “Um…A-cak-ee-uh?” or my favorite, the nurse motions to another nurse and says quite loudly, “How do I say this really weird name?” And then I just get up and say, “That’s me!” At one of my jobs my boss never pronounced it correctly and took the liberty to correct others into saying it incorrectly. I felt as if I was living a double life; called one thing by my friends and family, and then something else by co-workers and boss. But, after a couple months in I didn’t have the heart to tell them “A-cage-uh” was not my name.
My parents named me after the acacia tree. It roots can be found as deep as 200 feet, and it thrives in desert places. Famously known as growing in Africa, maybe you’ve seen it featured in the The Lion King. But, I was actually born before The Lion King so my parents didn’t get the honor of having their inspiration arise from that. Acacia is the wood that the ark of the covenant was made out of in the Old Testament.
It was the very place that the raw presence of God dwelt in. The pillars of the temple were also made of the same wood. Pslam 144:12b says, “May our daughters be like graceful pillars, carved to beautify a palace.”
And so just like my name I want to be one who has the manifest presence of God living inside of me and exists to bring glory to His name.
