Grains of Sand

Pixabay Remember...that God "forgets." The writer to the Hebrews quotes Jeremiah 31:31-34 when he writes: " For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more " (Hebrews 8:12). This is followed up with, again quoting Jeremiah, " 'Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.' And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin " (10:17, 18). In both cases these wonderful verses are preceded by a promise from God to " ...put my laws in their hearts, and...write them in their minds " (10:16 and vice-versa in 8:10). These are changed people, renewed in heart and mind, and forgiven. God is omniscient. This fifty dollar word simply means that He knows everything. And logically, at least to my mind, omniscience means He can't forget anything. This is why I wrote "forgets" as I did. Because God really doesn't forget anything. I think this is important because one o...

Google Images 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...

“ The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him ” (Genesis 40:23, NIV). That must have been a cruel disappointment. Joseph does the cupbearer a huge favour in prison and all he asks is that Pharaoh’s servant put in a good word for him when he gets released. After all, the man has the king’s ear. It’s easy to point a finger until I remember all the people I forget. That phone call to ask how someone is who has been sick or who is going through a difficult time. That email to pass along an invitation, or to connect with someone far away. That person I should have spoken to on Sunday at church. That letter or card I should have sent to remember a special day. That person who needed a visit but didn’t get one from me. That time with the Lord when He was waiting—and I didn’t wait. The passage doesn’t say that Joseph was disappointed, discouraged, hurt, by the cupbearer’s forgetfulness. Perhaps as a man of faith it didn’t bother him—much. But whether or not the...