With Jud’s death, there is a temptation to ask God, “Why have you forsaken me?  Why have you forgotten me?”

Right after Judson died, I picked up my “Morning by Morning” daily mediations by Charles Spurgeon and turned to the reflections for that day, November 7.  Oh how fitting were his thoughts that I have summarized here:

“Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.”-Isaiah 49:16

We often cry out saying, “The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me,” (Isaiah 49:14).  However, the Lord lovingly rebukes these fears and doubts from His people.  He cries, “How can I have forgotten you, when I have engraved you on the palms of My hands?”

God keeps his promise a thousand times, but the trial makes us doubt Him.  He never fails.  He is never a dry well.  Yet, we are continually vexed with anxieties, molested with suspicions, and disturbed with fears as if our God were the mirage of the desert.

“I have engraved you.”  It does not say, “thy name.”  The name is there, but that is not all: “I have engraved YOU.”

Everything about me and ALL that concerns me, He has engraved on His hand.  This is staggering.  Oh, that I may absorb this truth!  Can I ever say that God has forsaken me, when He has actually inscribed me on the palms of his hands?