When we struggle, when we go through pain and hard times, we often feel as if God has forgotten us. We pray and no one seems to hear. We read the Bible and get nothing out of it. We feel abandoned, deserted.

Those are the feelings reflected in Isaiah 49:14. Zion – a name for Jerusalem, often used in Scripture to represent God’s people – cries out, “The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me!”

But God replies:

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me” (Isaiah 49:15-16).

Think of the most tender human moment – a mother nursing her baby. Consider the love, the care, the devotion, as she feeds this infant from her own body.

Now imagine that mother forgetting her baby is even there. She stands up, drops the child on the floor, notices nothing, and walks away.

Hard to imagine, isn’t it? We think that could never happen.

But God tells us: Even that may possibly happen, but He will never forget His people; He will never abandon them. Indeed, rather than just holding the baby to the breast, God has engraved His people into the palms of His hands. His people are ever before Him; they are part of Him. To abandon them would be to cut off part of Himself.

Thus Scripture assures us: God is for His people, He is with His people, He has reconciled His people to Himself in Christ, they are incorporated into Christ. He will not, He cannot forget His people.

Now, zoom the thought in close, making it personal: If I am in Christ, God’s love for me exceeds the love of a nursing mother for her child. He tenderly cares for me, He guards all my ways, He works all things together for my good and His glory. He will never leave me nor forsake me, but will bring me safely to His heavenly Kingdom.

What joy! What assurance!

But now zoom the thought out once again: If I am in Christ, I am part of His beloved people, part of the Bride of Christ, whom He will present to Himself in splendor, to His great joy, whom He is forming from those of every tribe and tongue and nation, who together are for the praise of His glorious grace. And in the new heavens and new earth, all of God’s people will love Him with all their heart, all their soul, and all their strength – and each will love you, each will be closer to you than your closest friend or family member today. Furthermore, this intimate friendship with God and with one another will never end.

No matter how you may feel, God will not forget you. If you are in Christ, He has great plans for you, together with all of His people. He is at work fulfilling those plans – amidst all the trials, difficulties, challenges, and horrors of this life. In Christ, you are engraved in the palms of His hands. Trust Him – and pray for His Kingdom to come.