Permanently Added It was a normal day at my home church where I work. I was busy about doing my usual duties. Nothing unusually exciting about typing names into power church to record those that are either new, absent, or present for the Sunday in question that I am working on. Just a duty that has to be done. Until today…. I typed in the name of a lady that by the world’s standards would not be an “A-lister”. I say this because I remembered her from service Sunday morning and she had been driven to church in a van from the assisted living housing where there she is helped in the daily tasks of taking care of herself. She cannot drive or maintain daily chores on her own. When I typed her name in to record her as being a first time visitor, a box popped up that I’m not unfamiliar with. I see it every week, but for some reason today it reached out and tugged on my heart as if to say pay attention. The box said “permanently added”. My heart began to swell at the thought of this statement. I wondered what it might mean to the lady that I had seen weeping at the altar Sunday to know that she was permanently added. I wondered how wonderful it might feel to her to know that she was a part of something, a member of a family, loved, admired, important, and wanted. I sat there in front of my computer screen, dropped my head and wept, and I wept hard.
I can remember how it feels to think you don’t belong. To feel rejected. To feel as if you are unwanted or not good enough. To wonder what it was exactly about me that was not acceptable to some. What rules applied to be an “A-lister” that my life, my heart was not capable of meeting. Then there came a day when I was “permanently added” to a family. God’s great big family. I gave Him my heart and my life and in return He wrote my name in His book under the words permanently added…. There are days I still struggle with loneliness, rejection, fear, and insecurities but in those times He always seems to be faithful to remind me that I am His, I am greatly loved, I am fearfully and wonderfully made, wanted, important, secured in His house, invited to His sanctuary of intimacy with Him, and forever grafted and accepted as His child. What a mysterious and amazing God is He who loves and accepts us on the A-list no matter what we have done or will ever do. God has no B-list. When I came to that realization, then I fell in love all over again with the One who created me for His glory and His pleasure just because He loved me and He wanted me with Him. I pray that this lady will somehow know she is thought of the same way by the One who constantly seeks for her and nothing can ever take her name off of His heart. Nothing can ever take me or you out of His palm or off of His heart either. We are permanently added for eternity and it is my prayer that if you are reading this today that you will understand the truth of His love with every ounce of your might.
Written by: Nicole R. Bryan
