REMEMBERED AND NOT FORGOTTEN

When opening a memory photo album, we try to remember the events, places, and people behind the photos. Sometimes we can remember clearly, but often we have difficulty remembering the places, times, and even the people in them. Our memory is very limited and can forget. Like old photos that start to fade, we are afraid of being forgotten. What about God? Can God forget us?

In the midst of the dark times faced by the people of Israel, the Lord said in Isaiah 44:21, "You will not be forgotten." God is not just taking pictures of us from afar, but He is the one who shapes us. The word "shape" in Hebrew (yatsar) means He deliberately forms us, like a potter shaping clay-carefully, lovingly, one by one. Even though we sin, He erases everything "like mist" (verse 22). Mist disappears without a trace and as proof, He called Cyrus by name 150 years before he was born (verse 28). Cyrus, the foreign king, became an instrument of salvation in the hands of the Lord. God is the One who remembers His people and controls history.

Perhaps today we feel like old photos that are starting to be forgotten-by friends, by the world, even by ourselves. Yet, God says, "You will not be forgotten." The presence of Cyrus referred to as "My servant" is a depiction of the presence of Christ as the Savior of humanity. Our sins and dark past are erased through the blood of Christ, the Lamb of God. In Christ, God knows and remembers our existence as His own. Our names are engraved, not in a dusty album, but in the palm of the Creator's hand. Our life album is in His hands because we are not forgotten by Him. --DSK/www.renunganharian.net