God has called us by name to be loved by him.
This has been the case since the beginning of time, when God created the world and declared it “very good”. That included the creation of humans. Then began a story of how humans, who like today, went off on a wrong path and continued to do so, falling down time and time again throughout the Old Testament and into this present day.

However, this God of love, our Father, loves us unconditionally whatever path we are walking on. He keeps calling us back to him through love and trust. He wants to pick us up again when we fall. He wants to meet us in the loneliness and darkest places; he wants to rejoice with us in the good times.

He sent us the light of the world, Jesus, who died for us - so we could still not be separated from the love of God. Jesus was 100% man and 100% God and through shared human experiences shows us that we are understood in our lives. Through the good times and the bad. We have been knitted together in the womb, our names are known. We cannot be separated from this unconditional love, and God is trying to show us this through Jesus and others that went before him.

In the Old Testament, God led the Israelites out of Egypt by going before them in the day in a pillar of cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire. He protected, loved and guided them through each hour of the day and each hour of the night. He loves us so provides. His providence is shown through providing food (manna) through a 40 year journey in the wilderness, seen through the feeding of the five thousand. He makes us promises - covenants. He promised Noah that the earth wouldn't be destroyed again by flood and he promises us through the new convent that we will be forgiven our sins and be drawn closer to him, if we turn towards him with our hearts.

God has always loved us and always will, the hardest part is remembering that through the challenges we encounter each day, and trusting we are held in that love. The love of someone who has never, and will never, give up on loving us. He knows us all by name.

I have almost been working at the hospital as an employed Chaplain a year now, it felt like a milestone this morning when the car park attendant let me in, with no need to check my name against the list. - “oh I know you!” Go through!

It's taken a year to get to that point, but God has known my name and everyone else's name, right from the start.

He knows and loves every patient inside this hospital, and it is part of my role to carry that love and pray for others to find it or remember it.

He knew the baby I went to see - he knitted them together in the womb. “all the days ordained for me were written in your book”

He knew the elderly lady I went to comfort and he gave me the words to say to her upon leaving. “and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me”

He knows the patient who has nobody in her life and is trying to find a way through to hope.

And he probably also knew I needed help with finding the name of a song.....This patient just wanted to chat about the world outside for a while and listen to some music.

Here's the point where things could have taken a turn, I asked what she wanted to hear- for a few minutes I was searching Spotify for classical music by Barbara.....-she was actually referring to Barber and wanted to hear Adagio for Strings. I was glad for any divine intervention in that moment. I was also glad not to accidently select the club version that has been remixed from the original. I don't think the ward would have appreciated Adagio for Strings by Tiesto. Look it up and you will see the dramatic difference between that version and the one by London Philharmonic Orchestra. I fear the “chaplain with the music” could have ended up banned from the ward.

Another patient I ended up catching as they were just about to be discharged. He had an incredible story of transformation to tell and it was moving to hear how he was turning his life around. God had called him by name and picked him up at the very lowest someone can be.

I enter so many different chapters in people's lives, but what I become more and more aware of is the search to find the true source of love and hope. The joy in its discovery and rediscovery, and the pain and loss when it is absent. But still God keeps reaching out to all, as he has always done and always will throughout time. He is the beginning and the end.

I think back to when I began the role- I asked for clear t shirts marked with “Chaplain” for visibility in the hospital. I wanted to be a visible presence. So, often my name is Chaplain, but it is one that I will never take for granted.

Psalm 139

You have searched me, Lord,
 and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
 you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
 you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
 you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
 and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
 too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
 Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
 if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
 if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
 your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
 and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
 the night will shine like the day,
 for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
 you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
 your works are wonderful,
 I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
 when I was made in the secret place,
 when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
 all the days ordained for me were written in your book
 before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, oh God!
 How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
 they would outnumber the grains of sand-
 when I awake, I am still with you.