The Quintessential Multitasker

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After a year in his floating zoo, Noah must have wondering if God had forgotten all about them and if they were doomed to becoming the world’s first perpetual cruise line.

Perhaps Moses, considered to be the recorder of these events, wormed his way into Noah’s mind and somewhat tongue-in-cheek wrote: “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).

As if God could forget!

We know theologically that God doesn’t forget but sometimes, in the midst of our daunting life experiences, it feels like He does suffer from memory lapses or gets too busy with other things to concern Himself with our affairs. I’d wager, if I were a betting person, that Noah had his moments when he wondered if they had been abandoned on the high seas.

Isaiah writes, speaking of God: “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! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands...” (Isaiah 49:15, 16).

The closest of human bonds is that which exists between mother and child. But even that bond can be broken—a mother can forget the baby she is nursing. But the Lord never forgets us. It was common in past times to bear the mark of one’s loyalty on one’s body, to have the mark of ownership engraved on the skin. Here in Isaiah, we are presented with the picture of a God who has those who belong to Him engraved on the palms of His hands so that He would never forget.

Noah may have felt forgotten as we sometimes feel forgotten. But feelings can be deceiving. God “remembered” Noah. He remembers us—all the time, every second, every minute, every hour, every day, every year. He remembers 24/7. And He will come to pull back the “waters” that threaten us at exactly the right time and in the right way.

He never forgets. Multitasking is His specialty.