Always on His mind

It is always heartwarming when someone messages you or calls you because they randomly thought of you and wanted to see how you are doing. But what if I told you that there’s someone who thinks of you all the time?

Long, long ago, before the world began, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit made a pact ― a covenant that could never be broken. They knew how hopelessly wretched and sinful we would become one day and so, they scripted a beautiful plan of redemption for us, even before we came to be. Ephesians 1:4-5 says, “Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoptions as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will.” Simply put, even before the foundation of the world, He was thinking of you and me.

When our Lord came to this world, He chose a smelly manger to make His entrance. Despite all that He did for His people, He was condemned and treated like a criminal. The whipping, the mockery, the suffering ― He bore it all. And with it, the weight of the guilt and shame of sin of all mankind. How repulsive that must have felt for the Holy of Holies! And yet He said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Even on that cross, He was thinking of you and me.

The triune God knew how hopelessly sinful we would become one day, so they scripted a beautiful plan of redemption for us, even before we came to be

Before He went back to His Father, He gave us a promise. “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3). Even in heaven, He’s busy preparing for our homecoming. You could freeze any moment in eternity and you would find God thinking of you and me.

Engraved on His hands

But Scripture goes even further to show us how much God thinks of us. “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me” (Isaiah 49:15-16).

As mothers, we know how often we think of our children and their needs. Even more so when they are just nursing infants, helpless and unable to do anything on their own. Yet, the Lord here says that, even in the unlikely event of a mother forgetting her child, He could never forget you or me. He loves us so much that He has engraved us on His hands. The scars left by the nails are emblems of the price He paid to have us permanently etched on His hands.

Revelation 5:6 records the Lamb standing, “as though it had been slain”, between the throne and the four living creatures. Even as He stands in all His glory in the highest heavens, with thousands upon thousands of angels worshipping Him day and night, it is you and me that He chooses to engrave on His hands. And nothing in all eternity can change that. “I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people may fear before Him” (Ecclesiastes 3:14).

The scars left by the nails are emblems of the price He paid to have us permanently etched on His hands

Expanding on the phrase “I have graven you” from Isaiah 49, Charles Spurgeon said this: “Our name is there, but that is not all: I have graven thee! See the fullness of this! I have graven thy person, thine image, thy case, thy circumstances, thy sins, thy temptations, thy weaknesses, thy wants, thy works; I have graven thee, everything about thee, all that concerns thee; I have put thee altogether there.”

Marvellous grace

It breaks my heart when I realise how much I am on my Creator’s mind and how less He is on mine. Psalm 8:3-4 says, “When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him?”

He provides when we least expect it, comforts us when the world around us falls apart and shelters us from our worst fears. Nothing ever happens in our lives without His knowledge. So the next time you wonder, even for a moment, if He has forgotten you, look with your eyes of faith at His nail-pierced hands. For if He has to forget you, my friend, those scars would have to be removed from His hands.

“How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with You” (Psalm 139:17-18).