Never Forgotten

I was born in Fairbanks, Alaska. I remember this being my claim to fame as a child. In school, if I wanted to get some extra glory or attention, all I would have to do was say, “I was born in Alaska!” For some reason, this produced great awe and respect from my peers. The inevitable questions were always, “Are you an Eskimo?” and “Why?”

I remember riding in the car with my family one day. I was probably about 7 or 8 years old. I told everyone that when I announced to my friends that I was born in Alaska they would ask why and I never knew what to say. My brother, Steve, said, “Just tell them you wanted to be close to your mother.” My dad started cracking up and I said, “I don’t get it,” which just made him laugh harder.

I was born in February and my mother has told me many times throughout my life that she wanted it to be really, really cold on the night I was born so that I could tell people this amazing temperature. (Really, how often does the temperature on the night you were born come up in casual conversation?) I would ask her how cold it was and the answer was. “Only about 20 or 30 below.” Oh . . . is that all? But, in a land where they would often see 50 or 60 below, it didn’t seem that impressive.

Isn’t this how good mothers are, though? Even before we are born, they are dreaming for us and imagining ways that our lives will be special and unique. After we are born, they nurture and cultivate those things and help us to believe that we can make a difference in the world. Parents are such a great example of God’s love for us, and He uses that love – both mother and father love – as a metaphor to help us understand what He really feels about us.

“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

The implication in this verse is that a mother cannot forget. How ludicrous to think a mother would forget her child. But, it happens. While it’s my father that I live in dread of forgetting me, the idea is the same. Our human memories can be stolen away by disease or accident. And then there are the mothers and fathers who forget their children, not in a literal sense, but a figurative one – turning their backs on their God-given responsibilities for their children. Many people must live with the truth that their parents have “forgotten” them by just not caring the way they should.

And this is why I love these verses so much! No matter what kind of earthly parents we have had, there is Someone who will never forget us. See – he has engraved us on the palms of his hands . . . literally!! This takes away all argument that the crucifixion was something that just “happened” to Jesus. This tells me it was very intentional on his part. He did it – it was not done to him. I have this image of him looking down at those marks left by the nails and not seeing scars, but seeing me. “There she is – there’s Debbie. I did that so she will never be forgotten.” You can replace my name with yours! And yes, He does love you that much!!!

Loving vs. Being Loved

My brother told me yesterday that he was getting tired of reading about butterflies. Okay - I get it. I said I would post something today - but today I have not had the inspiration. So, here is something I wrote a few years ago while I was reading the book Uprising by Erwin McManus. I actually needed to read it again myself.

“There is a place where very few of us ever aspire to go, where the measure of our worth is not how much we have, but how much we give – of ourselves. This place is entered only by those who risk the dangerous quest for nobility, a quest that leads to a place of endless generosity.” -Erwin McManus (Uprising)

Seriously, you should read this book – and I ain’t just whistlin’ Dixie (or any other song of the Confederacy). I mean, the guy’s middle name is Raphael. Wasn’t he a mutant ninja turtle in his teens? How can you NOT read a book by a guy with a turtle’s middle name? Huh??

Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was. His response was – “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and your neighbor as yourself.” McManus points out that our greatest pursuit tends toward being loved. We want to measure our worth and value by what others think of us. But Jesus said it’s the other way around. The greatest thing you can do is to love, not to be loved. The beautiful thing is that the two tend to go hand in hand. And this, I believe, is the whole secret. When we are so consumed with being loved, we are selfish, self-centered, and, if we take it far enough along, we become neurotic and paranoid. BUT, if we are consumed with loving, we become the most lovable people on earth and get what we long for anyway. It’s a paradox full of contradiction.

“Love in its purest expression is not something that is received, but something that is given. God is love not because He is most loved, but because He is most loving. We love Him because He first loved us. . . To properly pursue love, we must strive to give it away rather than simply find it. When we begin to love in this way, we begin to find the wholeness God promises. Until we embrace this reality that what we need will only come when we give it away, we endanger ourselves by becoming the ultimate consumers.” -ERW

Seriously, read the book!