GOD DOES REMEMBER US

Genesis 22:1-14

Isaiah 49:14-16

The labor pains begin all too early at 28 weeks of gestation, and little Maneesha, the subject of one of Anne Geddes photographs, comes into this world weighing in at just under one and a half pounds. How fragile she must look to her parents, laying in the incubator in the neonatal intensive care unit with all those tubes and wires. So tiny, born too soon -- would this child survive?

Kate Braestrup, in her book Here if You Need Me, tells this story of another little girl. It is late October near Masquinongy Pond in Maine. Six year old Allison had followed the family dog into the woods during a picnic. The dog returned – Alison did not. The Maine Game Warden Service has mounted a search – dozens of game wardens and volunteers, search dogs and cadaver dogs and a search plane.

Allison has wandered into an inhospitable environment, night is coming on, and the Warden Service chaplain has been called. Her parents huddle together on a picnic table bench and wonder. What else can this be about but death? All involved are joined together in one silent prayer “Jesus, please let her be alive.”

A father stands over his son, who is tied up and laid upon a pile of wood on a make-shift altar. At the father’s feet is a clay pot with live coals. In his hands is a knife. Is his face grim with resolution to do what God has commanded him to do, to sacrifice his one and only son? Does Abraham’s old hands shake as he raises the knife. Does he repeat over and over to himself the words he spoke to his son as they walked alone to this place? “God will provide, God will provde. Please God. “ Does it become a prayer? “Please God, provide.”

And what about Isaac? What is Isaac thinking? Has his father gone insane? Where is God, the God his father has taught him to trust? What about the promises God made to his father, the promises that were to be his legacy? Has God forgotten those promises? Has God forgotten him?

Death is a given in the human experience, whether it is physical death with the loss of life and relationship or it is the lesser deaths – the loss of a job,  the loss of health, the breaking of a relationship, the feeling of being trapped in a hopeless situation, facing impossible decisions or not knowing where to turn.

When we find ourselves huddled in fear and misery or wracked with worry and doubt, and night is coming on, we too may wonder if God has forgotten us. Will God provide? Will God deliver us?

Up to that moment, all Abraham knew of God was that God had provided what God had promised to him and Sarah. At the sound of the angel’s voice and the miraculous appearance of the ram, Abraham’s faith and trust were affirmed.

And what of Isaac? Perhaps his faith moves from beyond the head knowledge of his father’s teachings to the reality of Isaac’s own life. God presence became a living reality for Isaac.

The living reality of God’s presence comes in many forms. If we look for God at work, we will see God.

For the Moore’s, Allison’s parents, God was present during that long night through the chaplain who waited with them and listened to them, to their “if onlys …” and their fears.

God was with them through the Salvation Army who provided hot beverages and stew for them and the many searchers who continued to look through the night.

For Allison, God arrived with a search dog with a very cold nose who woke her from her sleep under a bush and a Game Warden who took her cold little hand in his big warm hand and walked with her back to her waiting parents. Her mother said it was a miracle.

At home, I have a copy of that photograph of Maneesha taken by Anne Geddes just before she left the hospital to go home with her parents. She is sleeping peacefully, nestled in a pair of big, warm, loving hands. For Maneesah and her parents, God was present in her doctors and nurses. Maneesha and many, many other preemies who have survived because of modern medicine are often called “miracle babies.”

Today, Maneesha is a beautiful, healthy thirteen-year old.

When I read the passage from Isaiah 49, I’m reminded Maneesha's picture.

“Can a mother forget the infant at her breast,
   walk away from the baby she bore?
But even if mothers forget,
   I'd never forget you—never.
Look, I've written your names on the backs of my hands.
   The walls you're rebuilding are never out of my sight. Your builders are faster than your wreckers.”

                                                                                                                            (The Message)

This is part of our legacy as sons and daughters of God. This is our hope made possible through Jesus Christ, that even in the middle of our darkest night, even when all hope seems to be gone and there is only death and loss, God does remember us. God does provide. God is continually working for our good. God, through our relationship with Jesus Christ, is always with us, expressing God’s love for us through miracles, great and small.

To see the photograph of baby Maneesha and to read about her story, then and now, please explore these links:

http://www.andrewsmcmeel.com/anne-geddes/special-baby.html
http://www.andrewsmcmeel.com/anne-geddes/maneesha-now.html