Engraved in His Hands

As I continue reading through Isaiah, and the rest of the prophets, I cannot help but be amazed at how beautiful the prophets really are. I read the prophets a while ago when I was younger and found them tedious, new to the Bible I wanted the stories I heard in Sunday school as a frame of reference. But now there are tons of verses that jump out to me, and one of them is 49:16. It is God speaking and He says “see I have engraved you on the palms of my hands…” All I can say is “wow imagine that!” Engraved in God’s hands, when I think of the word “engraved” I think of a monument or wall of some sort with lots of names chiseled in. I think of how even though time passes by those people will be remembered forever. And it is the same here with God, our names/lives/memories are engraved in His hands – we cannot and will not be forgotten. Imagine hearing this in Isaiah’s time; Isaiah lived near the end of Israel’s existence, soon the Babylonian empire will conquer Israel, take some captive and kill many more. With the stories of great triumph (Moses, Joshua, King David) on their minds it is hard to remember how much God loves us, and even harder to say that we are engraved in His hands. But God did not forget, because He kept His promise and Jesus came, God Himself landed on our little planet to make things right. Even though life gets out of hand and things go wrong we cannot let this truth slip from our minds, our names are engraved in God’s hands, forget written in a book we are constantly on His mind and He will not forget us and will come through if we hold on to His promise.