Reflection
A personal Reflection
A Personal Reflection
For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
all the days that were formed for me,
when none of them as yet existed.
How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
I try to count them—they are more than the sand;
I come to the end—I am still with you. (Psalm 139 vv 13-18)
Week by week, in this Chaplaincy and in every other church with which I have been involved over many years, someone has been responsible for maintaining a list of the names of folk in need of prayer because they are sick or in some other immediate or on-going need. Here in the Chaplaincy we are very blessed to have Lenna Clarke who has undertaken the task loyally for as long as I can remember and ensured that the Chaplain, Wardens and other ministers receive the updated version of the list each week. I have many times, almost thoughtlessly, contacted Lenna to add to the list, or to remove a name for someone recovered.
Over the past several months many of you will know that my own name has been on the Lenna List as I have slowly recovered from a serious infection following a knee replacement operation. I have, as I discovered when a couple of weeks ago I “went” on line to my former church in Jersey, also been on their prayer list. I was rather surprised to find myself being prayed for! It should not have been a surprise as I am still regularly in touch with my former Rector and many other friends in Jersey, but it did make me realise just how valuable these Lists are, and as I slowly but surely recover I give thanks not only to Lenna and her many counterparts in other churches for their loyal ministries but also to all those who, day by day, week by week have been supporting me in prayer over these past months. But most of all I give thanks to the Almighty who has been with me throughout my illness and since my very conception.