Forgotten




My husband has a terrible memory.

He misses birthdays and dentists appointments, deadlines and due dates. We tease him about it. He’s usually good-natured in response. What else can he do? He knows he has a problem.

One time he forgot me at the grocery store. He dropped me off to buy bread and milk while he drove a block away to pick up the kids after basketball practice. He should have been back in ten minutes.

After twenty minutes, I knew he had forgotten me. Rather than call and remind him, I decided to see how long it would take him to remember. I walked slowly down the aisles of the local store, checking prices and wasting time. It had been a long day and I was tired. My goal was to get home and get dinner on the table. But something stopped me. Somehow, I would make him realize that he needed to pay attention to what was going on around him. He couldn’t continue his absent-minded-professor routine forever. He was still in his forties, too young to claim old age as an excuse.

At forty-five minutes, I looked up to see him standing beside the cart. He wore a sheepish expression.

“You forgot me,” I said.

“Yes,” he answered.

He didn’t say another word all the way home. I seethed. Not even an apology.

When we got in the door, the kids were howling.

“Dad forgot you at,” they said.

It seemed he hd been puzzled by the absence of food on the stove—although the table was set. The phone rang for me and though he searched high and low, he couldn’t find me.

“Have you seen your mother?” he asked the kids.

Suddenly it dawned on him. He raced back into town. He has never lived it down.

As devoted as we are to those we love, we fail sometimes. Mothers may forget to watch their children, siblings forget to hold their little brother’s hand while they cross a street, and husbands forget their wives in grocery stores.

I’m glad that although people may sometimes forget, God has promised that He will never forget me. My name is tattooed on the palms of His hands. His thoughts toward me are greater than the grains of sand on a Florida beach.

Because He cares so much for us, we can turn to Him with all our cares and concerns.

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; your walls are ever before me. Isaiah 49:15-16 NIV