You Are Unforgettable

As you read the account in Genesis 8 and 9 of Divine judgment coming upon the whole earth—that man’s evil would be so great it would force God to completely destroy everything he had lovingly created—you can’t help but at least find a silver lining in the otherwise ominous wrath clouds in the very first line of Genesis 8:

 “But God remembered Noah.” 

What a great line—and what a great hope we have. God didn’t forget Noah, which means, by extension, that God will not forget you or me. Don’t underestimate the significance of that statement.

You see, no human being has ever wanted to live a forgettable life. Everyone wants to be remembered; God has wired that deeply into our DNA. Perhaps the reason he made us that way was to cause us to crave his attention—which in human relationships is usually, at worst, a bad thing, and at best, a very annoying trait.  But with God, being an attention-getter is actually okay, since he made us for that.

And God will oblige our cravings.  If man is chronically, stubbornly and unrepentantly sinful, oh yeah, he will get God’s attention all right—and not the kind that will be pleasant. Revelations 18:5 says a time is coming when the Lord will remember mankind’s evil with a final and unfettered wrath: “For her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.”

But most encouragingly, the Bible speaks of God remembering his people, especially at times when they think he may have forgotten them. If you want to really be encouraged that God won’t forget you, consider the following: Genesis 19:29, Genesis 30:22, Exodus 6:5, I Samuel 1:19, Psalm 112:6, Isaiah 49:15, Hebrews 13:5.

Obviously, God wants to convince us that to him, we are unforgettable. And to convince Noah, we see in Genesis 9:12-15 that God offered a sign as proof:

And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant.”

So the next time you see a rainbow, I hope you will see in it a paintbrush of the Divine Artist beautifully inscribing your name in the sky as a permanent reminder that you are unforgettable.

Yes, you are unforgettable to God.  Now don’t ever forget that!

Reflect and Apply:  Take a moment to consider God’s promise through Isaiah the prophet: “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!”  (Isaiah 49:15)  Now every morning until your next reading assignment, offer a prayer of thanksgiving back to God for his promise to keep you as unforgettable in his eyes.