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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Rachel Redeemed

Good morning,

I’d like to begin by introducing myself - I’m Rachel Redeemed, a Christian presenter. I do sometimes get a cocked eyebrow and ‘is that your real name?’ A few weeks ago, a passport official took a good look at me and asked outright if I was a Christian - I wonder if Brian Blessed got quite as much intrigue.

When I got married, my husband and I chose to take on the brand new surname of ‘Redeemed’. We thought about double-barrelling our previous names, but we were drawn to the idea of choosing a new name to symbolise our new family together. In honesty, the name ‘Redeemed’ felt like it came to us as a bit of a gift. Something about it clicked for both of us pretty much straight away. We road-tested it on our honeymoon and signed the papers on our return.

When reading the Bible, we just kept coming back to this theme: Jesus redeems (or buys back) those who trust in him. We both love the story of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, and like Edmund choosing to follow the White Witch, we were trapped and enslaved by selfishness and wanting to go our own way. Aslan the great lion redeems Edmund at a huge cost to himself. We believe we have been bought back at an even greater cost, Jesus’ death on the cross - and now we are free - some might say ‘redeemed’! What a delicious truth to be reminded of daily. I’m not suggesting everyone runs around waving a deed-poll but I love seeing my name written down and knowing that inside and out, I am ‘redeemed’ - what a joy!

Creator God, thank you that you know each of us by name. May we know who we belong to, as we step into this new day and enjoy the unique personalities and giftings of those alongside us.

Amen.