Strolling around Fort Santiago, I found some trees carved with names. It made me wonder what these people were thinking or feeling during the moment they were carving their names on the trees.

These carvings have no value to me or to anyone who finds them. But this observation made me remember something of great importance.

On Isaiah 49: 16, the Bible says "See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me." While that was written for Jerusalem, the book of Romans chapter 9 makes this verse in Isaiah applicable for anyone who accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Each name carved in God's hands is important. You and I are valuable to Him. He loves you and me and He showed that by dying on the cross of Calvary. Despite our shortcomings, He loves us with an everlasting love.