Hear what the Lord says: “Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine.”
Isaiah 43:1
I’ll probably get a bit of a shock if I check when the children's book Harry and the bucketful of dinosaurs was published, because I remember reading it aloud in the first children’s library I worked in as though it was yesterday. For those of you who know the story, do please skip on ahead, but for the uninitiated:
Harry is a small boy and his best toys are dinosaurs who live in a bucket (dinosaurs don’t belong in a box, they live in a bucket!). Unfortunately, one day they are mislaid on the train, and Harry’s Nan – a wise woman if ever there was one – takes him to the lost property office to look for them.
The dinosaurs, complete with bucket, are there safe and sound, but Harry has to prove to a kindly, slightly mischievous, railway employee that these are his dinosaurs and not someone else’s. Harry doesn’t hesitate. He calls out the names of all his dinosaurs and they all come to him (in a beautiful double-page spread of the book) and he says, “These are definitely my dinosaurs! Definitely!” (and on the last page of the story, they whisper back “And you are definitely our Harry”).
In the deepest part of the Methodist Church’s Taketime meditations, there is always a place when the leader says “And now listen as Jesus responds. Hear him speak your name….”
Today I’m thinking about being known by name – and how that is altogether more important when we are weary, alone, despairing – on the dark, wild nights.
At a time that is convenient for you, I invite you to pause from everything you are doing. To stop, be still and hear God calling you by name. You might want to move away from your desk, let your shoulders relax, close your eyes and be still, just to be able to listen.
In this place of prayer, you might want to:
- Thank God that he knows you through and through – in fact he knows you by heart. His thoughts to you are more numerous that the grains of sand on all the beaches of the world. He knows your name – and he claims you as someone who belongs with him.
- Pray for people you know who are weary, alone, or despairing, and for the people that call them home.
- Pray for people who feel that they are a number rather than a named person – for those who are caught up in dehumanising systems – and for people who long to be seen and heard, not just as a statistic.
- Ask God’s blessing on the lives of people who are marginalised; and on those who know the dispossessed by name and will not be silenced.
…and then listen as Jesus responds. Hear Him speak your name.
You might want to end this time of prayer by listening to some more of the verses from Isaiah 43 set to music, or, just by being still and listening to this piece of music.
Amen