Not Forgotten
“Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.” Isaiah 49:15
Being forgotten by others does not give one a warm, fuzzy feeling. It hurts to never receive a phone call from those to whom you thought you were close. But this happens. People move away, and for a time, they continue to communicate with you, but after some time passes, the phone calls and/or emails get further and further apart until one day they stop completely. When none of your phone calls or emails are returned, you basically give up and move on. I don’t think most of the time that friends intend to abandon you; it’s just that they became busy with their lives and families, and they, too, have moved on.
The experts tell us that loneliness has become a major affliction, if one wants to call it that, which is affecting more and more folks. As people are living longer, some outlive their spouses, brothers, sisters, cousins, and even some of their children. They no longer can get out and be active in the community, resolving instead to remain inside the walls of their homes where they feel perhaps safer, but even more lonely. Some have health issues that keep them home. If they are the kind of aged folks who are rather grumpy and constantly focused on their own situation, other people are not really eager to visit them, thus their loneliness becomes greater leading to depression and despair.
Yep, it is certainly no fun being forgotten. One feels useless after many years of giving time and attention to others. It is not just the older folks who may feel that they are forgotten, but even younger folks also can experience loneliness from time to time. Our world is full of too many distractions to keep us from communicating and caring for one another. Sure, we have social media, but it seems to be an easy way to ignore people. No one has to answer your email or your text if they don’t want to. They can “cancel” you if they so desire. Seems that social media is more like anti-social media. Our world has become a world of selfish, prideful people who lack compassion for anyone. There have always been selfish, prideful people, but it now seems like they are the majority. Has everyone forgotten the golden rule? “As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise”, as Jesus said in Luke 6:31. I don’t see a whole lot of evidence that folks are diligently following Jesus’ admonition.
The good news is, though, that even if the entire world, that is, the entire world of people that know us personally, forget about us, the Lord will not forget us. He’s the only One whose opinion about us counts anyway. He is the only one who promised not to leave us or forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:8), and He is most capable of keeping that promise. Psalm 27:10 tells us that “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.” It’s hard for me to imagine my parents forsaking me, but death has a way of separating parents from children and vice versa. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:39 that nothing, absolutely nothing, not even death, can separate us from the love of God which is found in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Loneliness is difficult. I miss those who have passed on into heaven, but know that they wouldn’t come back to this old sin-cursed world even if they could. I will get to see them and live with Christ and all those who have gone before me one day, but for now, I can enjoy the presence of the Lord and know that He is with me at all times. Jesus told Nicodemus that the Holy Spirit was like the wind. One doesn’t know where it comes from nor where it goes, but one knows it has been there because one can feel the effects of it. I feel the effects of the presence of the Holy Spirit with me 24/7 and know that I am never really alone.