Woops!

Woops!

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!

Isaiah 49:15

How is it possible for a mother to forget her own child’s birthday?  I have no answer to that question, but it happened to me a few years ago, and I still deal with feelings of stupidity and inadequacy whenever story is told,  My oldest child’s birthday was on a busy Thursday, and I sailed through the day without any recognition of its significance.

She called me a week later, and during the conversation, she mentioned that her boyfriend’s birthday was that day.  I asked how old he was, and as I calculated in my head his age vs. hers, it hit me.  I could not have been more humiliated.  She laughed and was very gracious, but I felt about an inch tall.  The tale is now family legend, and every time someone brings it up, I think, “How could you forget?”  I have no idea.

Isaiah’s text indicates that it is, indeed, possible to forget things concerning our own children – frail humans that we are.  But God clearly states, “I will not forget you!”  How grateful I am for that assurance.  While I wander through life in a haze of busyness and distraction, God knows exactly where I am, how many hairs are on my head, and what day my birthday is! 

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More like You, Jesus, more like You.

Fill my heart with Your desire to make me more like You.

More like You, Jesus, more like You.

Touch my lips with holy fire and make me more like You.

The Faith We Sing, No. 2167