Like a MotherChikamu

Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. (Isaiah 49:15)

I will never forget the piercing cries of my infant children. Their cries were a kind of command, impossible to ignore. I was compelled to drop whatever I was doing, to give them what they needed. I could always hear them, even deep asleep in the middle of the night. Even now, when I hear that kind of cry from someone else's baby, I want to respond. 

Isaiah describes God in just that way - compelled to respond. He will not, he cannot, forget you. In verses 8-13 Isaiah describes God's faithful care of his people, especially people that are often forgotten in our world - prisoners, landless people, people left hungry and thirsty. He promises that all of us will be cared for, no one is forgotten. This beautiful passage concludes with a prayer of praise: "Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing!" (v. 13)

Even then, Zion (another name for Israel), asks whether God has forgotten him. To a child, what matters is whatever is happening right now, not what has happened in the past, or what has been promised in the future. So like a loving mother, God reminds his people that he can never forget them. 

Do you ever feel forgotten by God? I invite you to remember today, to remember God's faithfulness in your own life, and in your family, and to cling to the promise that just as he has been faithful, he will be faithful. 

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