NO OUTCASTS, NO ORPHANS

 

“Can a woman forget her nursing child,

And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget,
Yet I will not forget you.  ‎
See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
Your walls are continually before Me.”  (Isaiah 49:15-16)

Heartbreaking news stories sometimes come to our attention of abandoned and abused children.  We react with revulsion because that is against the natural order of things.  Any parent with an ounce of humanity cannot do this.  Feeble, failing human beings have a God-given drive inside of them to care for their little ones.  Dare we think a perfect Heavenly Father of infinite love would neglect us?  There is a song by the contemporary Christian music group, “Avalon” that says,

There are no strangers
There are no outcasts
There are no orphans of God
So many fallen, but hallelujah
There are no orphans of God.

To that I echo, “Hallelujah!”  It is true.  As a name tattooed on our skin would fix an indelible mark, so God has engraved His children’s names on His hands.  That is more than a metaphor, it is a literal truth concerning the scars engraved in the hands of the crucified Christ—perpetual reminders before the Father of the sacrifice of His Son that made us His children.  The only way that God would forget us is if He would forget the price His Beloved paid for the sin debt we owed.  He will not!

Isaiah speaks here of the walls of Jerusalem.  Those walls have at times been battered and even broken by invaders—and today are threatened by a host of enemies that encircle the nation of Israel.  Those sorrows have been due, not to God’s neglect of them, but their neglect of Him!  Sadly, the nation is yet in unbelief and faces more pain in the future.  This does not, however, mean God has forgotten His promise—quite the opposite!  His chastisement is a token of His love.  He uses the pain to correct and drive the people back to Him!  He has made a covenant with Israel.  He knows where the foundations of Jerusalem’s walls are.  They have been rebuilt in the past when the people repented and they will be in the future—most gloriously so!  Perhaps you feel God has forgotten you.  Might it be that you have forgotten Him—and He, like the father of the Prodigal Son, ever watches and waits for you to come back home.  He will embrace you with open arms.  “There are no outcasts, there are no orphans of God.”