Wednesday Reflection for 13th November

Last  Remembrance service our minister read out all the names on the war memorials in our sanctuary and again this year. This started Allan Shaw, one of our elders, on a journey of discovery.
He has researched all 79 names on the war memorials and now a booklet, “Their name liveth for ever more” has been published. Now we can feel we know a little about each one and what happened to them in the challenging times they lived in. No longer are they a name on a list of names.

Thinking of names and how it matters so much to remember and to be remembered by name, to know we have not disappeared into the crowd and are anonymous brought many thoughts to mind.

In Isaiah we read, “I have called you by name and you are my own.”
God knows us all by name as individuals, as we are and still he is our shepherd, in charge of his sheep. “He calls his sheep by name and leads them out. He goes ahead and the sheep follow, because they know his voice.” (John 10)

O Lord, you have searched me and known me. 
You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.
You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.
You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.       
Psalm 139