He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out of the fold.

John 10:3

In today’s Lent Project devotional, Dianne Collard speaks about hearing God speak her name at a point of deep pain. Speaking about preparing this devotional while reading John 10, she says:

As I prayerfully read our Scripture, the statement that arrested me is, “He calls his own sheep by name.” I immediately recalled an experience I had at the time of my deepest despair and grief over the murder of our eldest son. As with all numinous experiences with God, it came in an expected place and manner. As I cried out to God, while sitting in the contemporary art museum of Vienna, “Can I go on living? Do I want to go on living with this pain?” I actually heard God call me by name. He revealed himself as the “original abstract artist” and told me that, “if I trusted in Him, he would restore the broken pieces of my heart and soul and make something beautiful out them.” I will never forget hearing God clearly saying, “Dianne”—he called me by name! I bowed in prayer and worshiped my God, and in that worship, I knew my healing had begun. It was a life-changing experience.

Just as the Lord knows her name, he knows each of our names. He knows your name: your pain, your trials, your heart. And through Jesus, our Good Shepherd, we hear his voice, the voice that comforts and heals.

We all need to hear that voice. We all long to hear that voice, the voice of the one who knows our name and who, when he says it aloud, brings wholeness and rest to our souls.

Good Shepherd, you know us by our name and our identity is not hidden from you. Gather us to yourself as a shepherd gathering the sheep, that we might know your Name. Lord in your mercy, Hear our prayer.
Amen.

Derived from the Church of Scotland liturgy