If you haven't noticed yet the babies are booming in our church family... and I LOVE IT! Some would say, "There's something in the water here at WFMC; careful!" The parents are letting me hold their newborns to get my baby fix since my own three kids are too old, big, and squirmy to cradle in one arm like a football. What a precious gift!
Here's a question for you: do you think one of these moms would ever completely forget they had a child? To wake up one day, head out and do some shopping and hang with some friends while forgetting the infant at home? That would be highly unlikely, maybe even impossible, wouldn't you say? Apart from that slight brain lapse, we might experience once and a while as we do with a pair of glasses wondering where they went though they are sitting on top of our head, a mom completely forgetting a child just sounds ridiculous... God himself says so too.
In my devotions this morning I came across Isaiah 49:15-16b. Zion, the city of God's people, cries out to God wondering if He has abandoned and forgotten them (v. 14). God, ever so gently, responds to his people with this assurance: "Can a woman forget her nursing child or lack compassion for the child of her womb? Even if these forget, yet I will not forget you. Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands" (CSB). While God leaves the door just slightly open for the possibility of a forgetful mother, there's one impossibility he promises: "I will not forget you!" God didn't forget his people while they were enslaved in Egypt, nor did He forget them while they were captured and exiled to foreign lands in Babylon or Assyria.
No matter where we go or end up, God will not forget us!
You can run to the far reaches of our world or culture, waste your life away on lascivious living, and he'll still be thinking about you, looking down the path, waiting for your return. You can be overrun and captured by whatever enemy that comes against, taken away to their camps... as a nursing, loving mother won't forget their child, God will not forget you. Why? Because you are inscribed on the palms of His hands (v. 16). The scars on Jesus' hands have your name written in them and perpetually bear a reminder that you have been purchased by the blood of Jesus, adopted into the family of the King, and are a child of the Most High... He won't forget you.
Therefore, whatever trial you may be in currently, whatever hope you have that isn't coming to pass... surely it isn't because God has forgotten you and taken a day out. In Christ, you are a child of God, He won't forget you. Be encouraged with this good news today. Blessings!