Don Friesen
The Vancouver Airport, after its unfortunate incident with a Polish immigrant last fall, must have been nervous a week ago when a 23-month-old immigrant child was left alone in the airport. (The Associated Press, May 14, 2008) A family emigrating from the Philippines lost track of their 23-month-old son in a rush to catch their flight to Winnipeg. Scrambling to catch their connecting flight after having to unpack and re-pack all their luggage, each member of the extended Parreno family thought someone else had the toddler! And then, scattered in seats throughout the plane, the family was not even aware that the little boy was missing. There he was, however, wandering alone between security and the flight gates. Thanks to Air Canada personnel someone was found who could speak the boy's language and keep him calm until the family was reunited.
When I looked at the CBC web site to refresh my memory of the story I noticed that several people had left responses to the story. One sounded quite indignant: "You just knew someone would have to blame the mom. What about the dad and the grandparents? Why is it that the mother always gets the blame for anything that ever goes wrong with a child?" (www.cbc.ca/bc/)
Another person recalled coming to Canada as an immigrant at about the same age. He was a curious little tot, and when the family landed in Montreal and were greeted by relatives, he took the occasion to wander off! He writes, "My poor mother, who was barely 22 and had never been to Canada, apparently screamed ...when she looked down to pick me up and found that I was not there. It took them half an hour to find me and they were frantic... (but) in a flash of brilliance, my mother deduced that I was likely to be wherever there might be food ...and headed to the cafeteria. She found me behind the counter, with donut smashed in each hand and chocolate sauce all over my face."
The Home Alone movie (1990) of some years ago was entertaining, but it's a frightening experience for both parents and children when a child is lost or left behind. On one occasion years ago I took my older children to the Wave Pool for a Junior Fellowship event. I took along Rachael, our youngest, because I was to bring her and Emily B back to our house after dropping off the older ones. We all went into the Wave Pool, I gave the older ones into the care of the Junior Fellowship leaders, then left and drove away without Rachael and Emily! Not only that, I didn't go home, so when a more responsible person called from the Wave Pool, Dorothy had no idea where I was!
A Despondent Community, Feeling Forgotten
The people of Israel were wondering the same about God! Where is God? God has forgotten us, they said. God has left us all alone, and this sure ain't no wave pool! They had returned from exile – no picnic itself – to find Jerusalem in ruins, its temple destroyed, its houses dilapidated, its walls broken down. God was nowhere in sight!
Our reading from Isaiah begins in a very promising fashion. Isaiah tells this despondent community that God wants them to remember his help in the past. Therefore He will help again. God's message to His community is a barrage of promising images: no more "hunger or thirst," no more "scorching wind" or sun to "strike them down". (Isaiah 49:10) God "who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them." (49:10) Things will improve! The exiles will return to the Holy City with ease. "Sing for joy," says Isaiah. "Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing!" (49:13)
Oh, really? Israel was not convinced. "The Lord has turned away and forgotten us," they said. (Isaiah 49:14, CEV) The Lord has "forsaken" us, "deserted" (NIRV) us. The Lord "has forgotten (we) even exist." (The Message) Sing for joy? You've got to be kidding! Yes, God had helped them in the past. The liberation from Egypt was astounding, Lord, but we were there for four centuries! And then it took another forty years for Moses to ask directions to the Promised Land!
Perhaps Israel was also suffering some pangs of self-reproach. Israel had been unfaithful, committing spiritual adultery with one false god after another, and so when the army of Babylon knocked down their house of cards, destroyed Jerusalem, torched villages and took them into captivity, they had little reason to expect God's faithfulness. If God had abandoned them, well, it wasn't without cause. No wonder, then, that Isaiah's words caused no little perplexity. God had been silent. Once they had been the object of God's intense love, now they were forgotten. It's over. God has put us right out of His mind.
God's Maternal Response
To these despondent, fearful people, God says, "I will not forget you." (Isaiah 49:15) I will not forget you. That assurance alone may not have been enough to convince this dejected community, but God left them with two memorable images. The first image is a maternal one. To those with heavy hearts and sagging spirits, God answers, "Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you." (49:15) "Could a mother forget a child who nurses at her breast? Could she fail to love an infant who came from her own body?" (CEV)
Well, yes. On occasion you hear horrendous stories, like the woman who locked her 9-year-old daughter in an unheated apartment for nearly ten days – long enough that her daughter suffered frostbite that resulted in the amputation of both legs! She was transferred to the care of her grandmother, and we can only hope that Grandma did a better job. ("Girl's Mother Sentenced," The Washington Post, May 28, 1988)
There are other such stories, but they are infrequent enough to be unusual. We would like to think that there are very few mothers who can sever the bond they have with their children. We associate a maternal person with nurturing, gentleness, unconditional love and acceptance, on top of which is heaped hours of care, compassion, desire, aspirations, hope, fervent prayers, and a whole lot more!
Some of you may remember a movie called Sophie's Choice (1982), in which the depth of a Polish refugee mother's love is tested beyond belief by the gut-wrenching choice she is forced to make upon entering a concentration camp. She is forced to choose which one of her two children will live, and which one will die. Love for our children runs very deep.
There was a heart-rending article in the Ottawa Citizen on Friday telling the story of the Beatty family who lost their son, Christopher, to a motorcycle accident in Thailand in January. As the family surrounded Christopher in his hospital room in Bangkok, all of those strong maternal feelings – love, nurture, gentleness, loyalty, protectiveness – came to the fore, not only in Christopher's mother, but also in his father, and especially his brother. ("Christopher's gift," by Shelley Page, Ottawa Citizen, Friday, May 23, 2008)
Isaiah declares that God could no more forget or abandon His children than a mother can severe her deep bond to her children. This is not the only time in the Scriptures that God likens Herself to a woman. God is often pictured as a mother-hen, protecting her brood. (Matthew 23:7; Psalm 17:8) "Could a mother forget a child who nurses at her breast? Could she fail to love an infant who came from her own body? Even if a mother could forget, I will never forget you," says God. (Isaiah 49:15, CEV)
You Are a Holy Tattoo on God's Hand!
God asked Israel to "sing for joy, ...(to) break forth into singing" (Isaiah 49:13), and when Israel remained unconvinced, God conveyed His love for them in two memorable images, the first a maternal one, the second another striking image. God tells them, "...I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands...." (49:15-16) The Amplified Bible translates this verse in this way: "Behold, I have indelibly imprinted you on the palm of each of my hands...." (49:16, AMP) And then, perhaps taking some liberties with the language, it suggests it also could be: "Behold, I have (tattooed a picture of) you on the palm of each of my hands...."
A graphic rendering! Tattoos are not easily removed. How many people have tattooed their bodies with the name of their girlfriend or boyfriend, only it turned out the tattoo was more permanent than the relationship! One young woman in this situation faced a decision: should she go through a painful, expensive, and not-altogether-guaranteed removal process? Or should she get another tattoo to cover up the first one? She decided on the latter, and her former boyfriend's name was covered by successively larger and darker tattoos until finally she was left with a fist-sized black flower across her abdomen. Her boyfriend's name was gone, but the tattoo was a nagging reminder of a broken relationship. (story told by Stephanie Voiland)
Isaiah's use of the image of a tattoo to convey God's faithful love for His children is striking, for several reasons. For one thing, the Scriptures frown on mutilation of the human body. Leviticus, for example, is quite explicit: "You shall not make any gashes in your flesh ...or tattoo any marks upon you: I am the Lord." (Leviticus 19:28) Yet God is willing to override His own prohibition to convey His deep love for His children.
Secondly, I have read that in Isaiah's day it was common for pagan worshippers to carve the name of their god into their hands. No doubt the pain of the procedure reminded them of the depth of their devotion, but the God of Israel seems to say, "There's no need for you to cut up and scar your hands, I will inscribe your names on my hands." It's an image that lends a poignancy to the palms that were indeed scarred by iron spikes to hold Christ on the cross. A suffering servant wounded for our transgressions. God wanted to convey that we have an everlasting place in His heart. "Your name is tattooed on my hand," says God. "Your face is forever etched in my mind. Your parents may get old and no longer remember your name, but I, the Ancient Of Days, will never forget you." (adapted from Ken Gehrels)
God wanted to convey the permanence of His love for us. Most of us long for tangible reminders that we're loved. We want people to remember our birthday, send us flowers or condolences on anniversaries of significant dates, or show us in any number of ways that they love and appreciate us. God made a decision to love us, and it was not a provisional or tentative or temporary commitment; God's love will not stop as soon as someone better comes along! Evidence of God's love may be everywhere, but take a special look at God's hands. You are a holy tattoo on God's hand!
Augustus Montague Toplady (1740-1778), the hymn-writer who gave us the hymn, "Rock of Ages" (Hymns for Praise and Service, #4), wrote another hymn in which he captures the permanence of God's love eloquently; he writes:
("A Debtor to Mercy Alone")
My name from the palms of (God's) hands
AMEN
Eternity will not erase;
Impressed on His heart it remains
In marks of indelible grace.
Quotations of Scripture are from the New Revised Standard Version, unless otherwise noted.