The things we fail to notice

This morning we celebrated all age worship for Lent. I wasn't sure how, with all ages together, to bring in the tragedy of the Earthquake and tsunami in Japan which has affected such a large part of our world this week. But, after putting away the alleluias, we read the account in Genesis of the Garden of Eden and reflected on  God's creation of and care for all creatures. We celebrated that God knows our name by writing our names on paper with glue sticks and then dipping the paper in sand and laying them on the chancel. The result was a colourful display of names and a remembrance that God knows well the names of all those affected by the ravages of the earth, especially in Japan today.
The congregation always amaze me by their willingness to get out of their seats and join in symbolic actions.
It wasn't until I uploaded the pictures taken after the service that I noticed that the names were carefully sorted into different colours for each side - red and yellow on one side and blue, green and orange on the other. For a moment I thought the children had sorted them and then I realised that it was just how I'd distributed the pack of coloured paper between each side of the church.
In the thick of things, sometimes, we miss the detail and it's good to be able to go back and reflect and gain a new awareness. The discipline of Lent affords that opportunity.