On His Nail-Pierced Palms

Isaiah 49:14–22

But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, the LORD has forgotten me.” “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands; your walls are ever before Me. Your children hasten back, and those who laid you waste depart from you. Lift up your eyes and look around; all your children gather and come to you. As surely as I live,” declares the LORD, “you will wear them all as ornaments; you will put them on, like a bride. “Though you were ruined and made desolate and your land laid waste, now you will be too small for your people, and those who devoured you will be far away. The children born during your bereavement will yet say in your hearing, ‘This place is too small for us; give us more space to live in.’ Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who bore me these? I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. Who brought these up? I was left all alone, but these—where have they come from?’” This is what the Sovereign LORD says: “See, I will beckon to the nations, I will lift up my banner to the peoples; they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their hips.”

In challenging times we often feel like God has forgotten us. But God assures us through the prophet Isaiah,  that God like a mother, never forgets His children and that we are engraved on His palm (vv. 15–16). God’s hands aren’t small, we can all fit in His palms, he remembers us just as He knows each star by name, and God is big enough to rescue us from troubled times. The psalmist tells us that God “heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them. Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite (Psa 147:3–5).” Isaiah encourages us elsewhere: “Lift up your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing (Isa 40:26).” How much more us? And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, He will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith (Matt 6:30)? God will make sure none of us is lost and He endeavours to save more, God our Savior, “desires all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (I Tim 2:4).” The LORD came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10), and He is the good shepherd who protects the sheep and looks for the one lost (Matt 18:12, Luke 15:4). More often than not it is us who forget God, but God never forgets us, and so, “remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, "I find no pleasure in them" (Ecc 12:1). And when we return to our senses, to Him, back into His arms, we will find ourselves in the familiarity of His nail-pierced palms; when we remember and come back to God, there’ll be much rejoicing and celebration in heaven (Luke 15:10)!