We Are Not Forgotten

On my walk this afternoon, I watched a yellow leaf fall to the ground. As I made my way back up the driveway, it floated down from a nearby tree and landed among a smattering of other red, orange and yellow spotted leaves. About fifteen minutes earlier, I had received a disappointing email, and the leaves invited me to linger while I tried to process the news. It wasn’t earth shattering or something that will impact life as I know it, but the long-anticipated message felt like a rejection of sorts, and the answer hit me harder than I thought it would.

Before heading back in to my computer screen, I made a few more laps, even though the 90-degree weather beckoned me toward my makeshift air conditioned office. The warm southern landscape preparing for a shift in nature reminded me that change happens, just not always in the way we think it will.

It seems cliché to talk about change each time Autumn dawns with her cool twilight air and lush brilliant colors. But I wonder if that’s what the Creator intended. I wonder if He wanted the ever-shifting seasons to signal our constant recognition of His plan.  

God already knows we will experience heartache and disappointment. He’s aware that life will dish out painful moments, even while we stand hopeful and expectant of another outcome altogether.

In more ways than I have time to elaborate here, 2020 has been a perfect example of that, hasn’t it?

Yet it didn’t stop me from taking another work break later on, as the sun prepared a slow, steady transition to close out the day. I grabbed my camera and headed out once more, in search of signs that remind me the beauty is still there.

And it always will be when God is in control.

We are not forsaken.

We are not forgotten.

The earth spins and the Creator is in His Heaven. Each season is a timeless tapestry of His goodness and love.

When you and I feel alone or on the frayed edge of social expectations, there is comfort in embracing the gift of God through faith. When we feel like less than enough, we can remember our place in the family is not based on the outcome of an email or the perceived rejection of another. It is also not based on status, position or lineage. We already have a place at the table, if we’re willing to accept it.

God invites us, welcomes us and delights in us as His Beloved.

May these excerpts from Psalm 139 be that reminder for you today.

O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.

You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 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.

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

Excerpts from Psalm 139 ESV