By Shelby Spear 
“I will not forget you. See, I have engraved you on the palm of my hand.” – Isaiah 49:15-16
God was assuring Israel – God’s people – soon to be followers of Christ – of his willingness to ingrain their livelihood into his flesh. God’s got the whole world in His hands – yesterday, today, and tomorrow
Brothers, sisters, sun, rain, moon, stars, wind, clouds. All in His hands.
Both sides of the story, all division and strife, every illness, issue, concern, plight, disaster. All in His hands.
The evidence lies beyond the nails.
Yet, despite God’s promise and constant deliverance, how often we forget not only the assurance of what He has done, but we become chagrined to what He says He can do. The risk of either misstep is forgetting Him altogether.
Imagine if our children forgot the assurance of our love, the promise of our protection, the value of our mercy?
The duality and marginalization of today’s world forms a line in the sand, leaving us susceptible to the temptation of picking a side, bar none. But God is beckoning us to focus on the One who created gritty particles, not on how capable we are of justifying our position.
I will never leave you or forsake you.[1] Another promise where God decrees, “Abandonment is not in my repertoire.” Yet the real fear of being unloved, alone, misunderstood, non-validated, unassured continues to stir the pot of contention.
Our gift from God is free will; the privilege of thinking for ourselves while He waits for us to open our hearts to the freedom of His instruction. Humanity will always disappoint, fail, lie, manipulate, accuse, judge, hate, idolize, boast. But our Refuge in the storm provides eternal safe haven to anchor our hope.
God’s ways versus mans bleed with irony. The Maker of everything has more to brag about than any human being, but He doesn’t. He could break a promise due to our blatant disrespect and disobedience, but He hasn’t. He could lie about our future using manipulation to fool us, but He won’t. He could judge us with unforgiving harshness, but instead He offers mercy.
From day one His campaign for all of creation has been solid, transparent, genuine, fool proof. He stands before every living, breathing human being – regardless of race, nationality, gender, orientation, age, religion, profession, vocation – and provides an independent choice.
A choice for love above all else, forgiveness beyond all understanding.
Do we take time each day to recognize this? Are we approaching life with mindful resolve to bear witness to Christ’s abiding love, mercy, and protection?
I know I am guilty of traversing the slippery slope of using God as a righteous pawn. Finding ways to project His anointing in areas where I am certain I’m “right” before asking God his opinion. How defiling an act to finger point beneath a halo of pride rather than pray with humility and open mindedness.
A world willing to hone in on the Divine has the potential to stir up sand-moving wind. This graceful breeze may be enough to bury the precarious line of division, drawing us closer together in the process.
When will we remember not to forget God has every fiber of our being spirituality tattooed into His strong hands? As moms, we are called to teach our children of this all-encompassing pledge and write the vow on the doorposts of our house and on our gates.[2] If we forget, we take the remembering right out of their hands.
“I will not forget you. See, I have engraved you on the palm of my hand.”
God’s covenant a permanent guarantee of his unyielding determination to keep us close, instruct us, protect us, love us. All He asks in return is we engrave His presence on our hearts, and on the hearts of our children and our children’s children.
The current state of our world begs us to begin burnishing.
[1] Hebrews 13:5
[2] Deuteronomy 6:9
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