“Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.”Isaiah 49:15-16 (KJV)
When nothing has changed for a long time, it is easy to conclude that God has moved on. Scripture answers that fear with an image no one could invent.
God reaches for the strongest human bond He can find, a mother and her infant, and then says that even that can fail, but His will not. He is not comparing Himself to the best of human love. He is saying He exceeds it.
Then comes the picture: graven upon the palms of my hands. Not written down where it might be mislaid. Cut into the hands, permanently, where it cannot be looked away from. Christians have never been able to read that line without thinking of the cross.
Being forgotten by God and being unanswered by God are not the same thing. You may be in a long silence. You are not out of His sight.
Lord, I have felt overlooked, and I bring that honestly to You. Thank You that I am graven on Your hands. Help me to keep walking while I wait. Amen.
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Related
For grief that nobody around you knows about, and prayers you have never said out loud.
“Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?”
Psalm 56:8 (KJV)
The most famous homecoming in Scripture, and the detail most people miss: the father was already running before a word of apology was spoken.
“And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his…”
Luke 15:20 (KJV)
People assess you on what they can see. God assesses something they cannot reach.
“For the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”
1 Samuel 16:7 (KJV)
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