While I'm on this topic, here is a verse I adore...(I actually adore a great deal of Isaiah and I have it neatly marked up.) My bookmark is always in Isaiah and I always open my Bible to this:
"Can a woman forget her nursing child
and have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.
See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands."
-Isaiah 49:16
I originally read this verse in Turkish on a wristband belonging to a little boy at a hotel, so I think of the Turkish before the English and I have it written in Turkish in my locket.
There are a lot of things I love about this verse, and one of them is the Certainty...I WILL NOT FORGET YOU. He doesn't say, "I'll try not to forget you," or "I'll do my best to remember you." He says, "I WILL NOT FORGET YOU." He takes one of the strongest loves, the love of a mother for her baby, and says it is nothing compared to His love for us. I think that is wonderful.
And here is something else I love: "I have engraved you..." In Turkish it says, "I have cut your name into my hands." Instead of saying He has written our names on his hands, He says He has cut them into His hands. Don't you think this is beautiful?
It's something I started thinking about for the first time last week - "When All Else." "When All Else" is the center of so many favorite verses. "When all else fails..." It seems as though that thought is a primary center of what moves us. I guess that I love it because it is my security. It moves me to act, because it takes away my fears of what will happen when I do. When I am not worried about ANYTHING is when I do my best for Him. But I do worry. All the time. What will happen if...? And I don't always hear Him say, "I will still love You, I will still be with You." I've realized that having a centerpiece in my life is key to everything. And "when all else" is a good centerpiece, because it brings me to the question, "What really matters? What's the One Thing?" and I can say "Dear God, it's You."
Seize The Day
-StrongJoy
And here is something else I love: "I have engraved you..." In Turkish it says, "I have cut your name into my hands." Instead of saying He has written our names on his hands, He says He has cut them into His hands. Don't you think this is beautiful?
It's something I started thinking about for the first time last week - "When All Else." "When All Else" is the center of so many favorite verses. "When all else fails..." It seems as though that thought is a primary center of what moves us. I guess that I love it because it is my security. It moves me to act, because it takes away my fears of what will happen when I do. When I am not worried about ANYTHING is when I do my best for Him. But I do worry. All the time. What will happen if...? And I don't always hear Him say, "I will still love You, I will still be with You." I've realized that having a centerpiece in my life is key to everything. And "when all else" is a good centerpiece, because it brings me to the question, "What really matters? What's the One Thing?" and I can say "Dear God, it's You."
Seize The Day
-StrongJoy
2 comments:
StrongJoy thank you,
I fully endorse your written thoughts! I love the way you empowered' the words (your very own), you have great awareness of a central relationship with God! Thanks for sharing.
I wrote a possibly related poem just last night...
"The heart of love to see our Father"
I met a man who had lost all that surely mattered
Yet he seemed serene and asked nothing more
I asked him what gave him light and hope
He replied quietly thus;
‘The moment I accepted life is wonderful gift,
I chose my heart be filled with God’s own spirit’
I was very moved by this statement,
And tears were felt for our many earthly pains.
So many of us have felt so sad and lost!
I noticed on the earth another footstep’s
Following behind this man,
He was not alone at all!
I loving hand was felt on my own shoulder,
And I heard these words… with love....
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”…. Matthew 11 v 28 - 30.
Peter Bowey
I love the Isaiah passage, too, on many levels... some of them as a result of being a mom to kids who were adopted... and I think there is a connection between the "being engraved" and the nails in Christ's hands...
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