“But God remembered Noah and all the
wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a
wind over the earth, and the waters receded” (Genesis 8:1, NIV).
When we consider God remembering us, we
find ourselves in a bit of a quandary because we must also hold to the promise
of God never forgetting us. It is a problem for us because we can get lost in the
anthropomorphism of attributing to God, human
characteristics because our language may be unable to fully describe action of
our God. God’s creation is ever before
Him, not as we see or understand it but as it really is. God doesn’t see the world and all of creation
in a linear sequence as past, present and future but rather as God with an all-encompassing
and all-knowing understanding of all of creation and time.
Thus we try in our language and
understanding to attempt to speak of God being incapable of forgetting and His remembering His creation and created
life as He is ever aware of each of them before they come into being or cease
to exist. We will always struggle to
understand much less express in words the ineffable Living God.
When the words speak of God remembering … even
in the Scriptures we must not get lost in trying to determine and quantify how
that is possible for God to act but rather rejoice in the action of God coming
to help, redeem, restore, save and create new things in those He loves. God had not forgotten Noah, nor does He
forget us. In the story about Noah, God
does not suddenly remember the one family He has saved from the flood or the
many animals aboard the ark. God comes
to Noah and his family to bring about the promises He made to them and begin
His plan of life beginning again upon the earth.
Sometimes we are floating around a bit
like Noah, wondering about things and timing. We may be wondering if God still
is aware of us and our predicaments and if He will remember us and His promises
to us. Rest assured, God has always been
aware of us and He will come to help, redeem, restore, save and work new
creation in us. We might say when that
happens, “God has remembered us,” but it is much bigger than remembering
us. God is coming into our very lives
with actions and grace in continuing His work in us. What God does in our lives through Jesus
Christ is good … so very good and vastly beyond simply remembering us.
“Being confident of this very thing,
that He who hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the Day of
Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6, KJ21).
Suggested Reading ... Genesis 8
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