As we contemplate the peace Jesus leaves with us, and the vision of a heavenly city where those who are present have their names written in the book of the Lamb, and the Lamb's name on their own foreheads, I've had this song running through my head.
Like John itself, it's better just heard rather than taken apart. Who is speaking? Us? Jesus? Or does the Advocate herself speak this presence, as the Prayer of the Day puts it, "in all things and above all things"?
Full text is at the link above. Sweet Honey in the Rock does a wonderful rendition
I write your name
On that fruit cut in half, on my bedroom mirror
On the empty shell of my bed, on my greedy and affectionate dog
On his limp awkward paw, on the springboard of my door
On every common object, on the top flame of the fire
On my friends' foreheads, on each body I love
On every outstretched hand, on absence without loving
On loneliness behind bars, on the stairway to heaven
On health won back, on danger passed,
On baseless hope
I write your name
And by the weight of one word
I start my love all over again
I was born to know you
And call you by your name
Peace
