The shepherd calls their own sheep by name
and leads them out.
—John 10.3
I bet God doesn’t call you Robert or Elizabeth.
The Beloved has a name for you
no one else has given you,
a name no one else has. No one.
Better than a nickname,
or even a heartfelt term of endearment.
The name of your soul,
declared to the universe in the language of mystery,
pronounceable only by God.
When you pray, it is for that name you are listening.
When God speaks your name
it is as when God says “Let there be light.”
It is the name of who you alone are created to be,
the name by which God knows you,
calls you into life.
Listen for the silence in which that name is spoken.
(It takes time; it’s a deep and wide silence.)
Listen for that name.
Let the one who alone calls you by name lead you out.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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