Postcode Privilege

It is strange how some of life’s little details can trigger memories for you. I read in the Our Daily Bread notes recently that the Republic of Ireland now has postcodes. It adopted them in the summer of last year, apparently.

Learning this took me back to my days working in print and mail for a catalogue company, when I was “between churches” – without a pastorate, in other words. Sometimes the supervisor asked me to “do the Irish” – process the mail shots that were to go out to the Republic of Ireland. I recall that the labels were different and the bags were smaller than for the UK! Certainly, in those days, there were no postcodes in the Irish Republic, only postal areas. Life could be very confusing for postal workers because people with the same or similar names lived in different houses that had no distinguishing numbers or other identification.

The new postcode system is a boon to anyone wishing to deliver mail. Ireland is even in advance of many countries with postcodes, as every house has its unique identifier. In the UK, postcodes only narrow the target down to a group of properties.

The writer of the notes reminded us that each one of us is unique in the sight of God. This is just as well! My mother once told me how, when I was christened, the muddle-headed old priest mixed me up with another baby that was being done at the same time.

It would be just too crushing to the spirit to think that God could make the same mistake. But He knows each of us directly. He notices the problems of each one and the personalities of each one. His relationship with us is tailored to our walk in life. He grieves over each of our falls, and notes with pleasure the steps of our spiritual progress.

O LORD, you have searched me and known me!

You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

you discern my thoughts from afar.

You search out my path and my lying down

and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD,

you know it altogether.

You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. …

For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there were none of them.

(From Psalm 139 ESV)

There is a challenging side to this knowledge. The Psalm-writer is well aware that the all-knowing God not only picks him out from the crowd, but sees his sins and faults as well:

Search me, O God, and know my heart!

Try me and know my thoughts!

And see if there be any grievous way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting!

It is comforting to know that there is One in heaven who both knows us through and through and cares – cares enough to send His only Son to die for us. But that also means we have something to live up to.