God Remembered

Series: Breathe/Wind of God

Genesis 8:1 ESV

I smiled when I read the scripture for today because the reference, “God remembered” is ludicrous and laughable.

I laugh because ancient Hebrew is not easy to translate into English and I know it doesn’t really mean what we think it means today.

In Genesis 8:1 we are told, “But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.”

God remembered in the ancient Hebrew can mean much more than a casual thought. In this case it means “to pierce”.

The Hebrew word (וַיִּזְכֹּ֤ר) pronounced way-his-kor actually means remembered earnestly. God’s remembrance is not anything like our remembrance, because we forget. God never forgets. Anything.

The heart of God somewhat like the heart off man just a gazillion times more (actually endless) and when God remembers he is pierced and overcome with love for Noah and the animals.

The English translation is simply insufficient to the task.

Furthermore, man cannot really understand the heart of God. We are simply not capable of that level of love. I have long believed that if we felt what God feels we would long for much more…not more possessions but more feelings. We would long for eternal love.

When I was twenty something I knew a man who prayed day and night. He did not call himself a prophet…he called himself a construction worker. But when he spoke my heart was pierced.

When he looked at me tears came to my eyes.

He was unlike any man I had known before (or since). When he looked at me somehow I knew that he saw my life and he knew my joys and my trials to come.

I came to realize that God protects us by not telling us everything.

God remembers every moment of our lives from the instant we are born.  When we accept God “in” us, God is in us from that moment. In an instant we are changed.

I believe the man saw the break in my marriage that hadn’t happened yet. But he could not reveal what he saw.

If he would have revealed it to me I would have taken another course in my life and my children would not have been born.

God had a greater purpose for me than I understood at the time.

Even when I was twenty, God remembered what would be and what would become.

So when scripture says “God remembered” it means God remembered everything in the whole of Noah’s life, his children’s life, and in the lives of his descendants.

God remembered everything that Noah and the descendants of Noah would contribute to the world for thousands of generations to come.

God knew man was not capable of remembering in the same way. God still knows that today.

In addition to that, God knows the plan and hope for each of us. Before God formed us, there was a plan.

God remembered it all. There is nothing God does not remember.

So when we say, “please remember me God” we can rest in the knowledge that God does remember. When we hurt God hurts with us, but in that moment we aren’t able to feel that. I think that’s because we are overwhelmed by our own grief.

After the fact healing does come and we are eventually able to realize God was with us all along.

So be IN God today.  

Deborah   acrazyjourney.com