All the World May Forget

Some time ago, I sent a girl I knew from high school a friend request on Facebook. She accepted, so I messaged her and said, "Hi, Tanya (not her real name)." She responded with, "Do I know you".

I thought back to when I had originally met her, and how much I enjoyed talking with her when I got the chance. I thought back to, when, shortly before I left high school, I had given her a book entitled Steps to Christ. I remember her saying something like, "Thank you! I'll read it. I'm a Catholic, so I have many religious books at home." I thought of the even more recent experiences of when I friended Tanya on my previous Facebook, and, after reading that she no longer used it really, but wanted someone to text her at this number, how I did it. I remember her response to those messages. First, "Who" and then after a brief explanation of who I was, "O ok I remember" and several other short replies. Then finally the message telling me to, in essence, 'get lost' "creep". I remembered them telling my mother pretty much the same when Mom gave her a motherly what-for. Any sane person probably would have never bothered her again. I didn't for a long time, but then, after thinking it might have been Tanya's boyfriend that was so rude, I tried again.

Now it was the same old thing. Even after another explanation of who I was, she didn't respond, didn't even deign to "see" it on FB. It was a sorrowful experience on two accounts. 1) She either read the Steps to Christ and forgot about it, or didn't bother to read it at all. 2) For reasons I'd rather not explain, I'm very distinguishable from others, and, according to them, "impossible to forget". I guess not. Not only that, but I have friended other folks from the same time period who remember me well-and it's been 5 years. And last but not least, she made an impression on me with her kindness. I guess I did not do so for her.

Mulling over all of the above really put me in a bad frame of mind. And when you put these scenarios with a bunch of other failed/rocky/lousy friendships, you're in an even worse frame of mind! I felt achingly lonely, and wondered if anybody outside family and a faithful few (about 6) would remember me when I'd gone. Then all of a sudden, a snippet of a promise, with other words, came to mind: "Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of [My] hands;" (Isaiah 49:16) said the Voice, "I have not forgotten thee." A feeling of happiness settled in my chest. Ah, yes! How true! All the world may forget, but He would not!

That night, I asked my sister to fetch me the big concordance, as I originally didn't know where the partial verse came from. After searching, I found it: Isaiah 49:16. I think it and the previous verse are a wonderful promise: "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. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of [My] hands; thy walls [are] continually before Me."

May it be an encouragement to everyone else who knows what I'm talking about. All the world may forget, but our LORD says, "yet will I not forget thee."  (v. 15, emphasis added).

Blessings,

Adelaide