I will never forget you

The word Remembrance has been in great use in recent days.  Yesterday was Remembrance Sunday, when up and down the country and in many places around the world, people will have been attending church services and other events to commemorate the end of World War I and to acknowledge the sacrifice of those who lost their lives in that terrible conflict and in other conflicts down through the years.  Sadly, the "War to end all Wars" proved not to be so.

This year bears particular significance, being the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War.  The poppy has become the symbol of remembrance, and the Installation which was created around the Tower of London is, by all accounts, very moving.  I have seen many photographic images of the installation, but I am sure that visiting the Tower of London in person and seeing the sight of the 888,246 ceramic poppies (each representing one of the British military deaths in WWI), much be a particularly moving and poignant experience.  Of the many images I have seen, the ones which stand out for me as being especially moving are those which feature a veteran, who, as they stand and look at the sea of poppies, must be remembering those colleagues in arms who lost their lives.  Though the years pass by, many of the memories remain.

In our Sunday evening church service yesterday, I took a slightly different slant on the word remember, selecting a few uses of the word in the Bible.  One of the verses I used came from the book of the Isaiah the prophet.  The people to whom Isaiah spoke had gone through a time of exile in a foreign land.  Although Isaiah encouraged them to rejoice at the prospect of a return to their homeland, the people were in no mood to celebrate, and cried out, 'The Lord has abandoned us!  He has forgotten us.'  They felt that they had been abandoned and forgotten by God.  God responds with these words,


'Can a woman forget her own baby
    and not love the child she bore?
Even if a mother should forget her child,
    I will never forget you.
I have written your name on the palms of my hands.'

What an encouragement to know that even in the darkest of times, when we feel totally alone, God watches over us and is with us; his love surrounds us always, even when we cannot feel it.  He will never forget us, our names are written (engraved) on the palms of his hands.