One of the sweetest love words I have read from God to me is in Isaiah 49:16. He said, “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.”
I want to believe you know what it means to engrave something. But for the benefit of the doubt; for those who don’t, engrave simply means to cut or carve (a text or design) on the surface of a hard object.
Just so we are clear, engravings are different from tattoos or incisions.
Tattoos are basically surface level and could be permanent or temporal. Incisions, on the other hand, are actually deep surgical cuts into the flesh; and they are done for either medical, spiritual or cultural purposes. Whatever the reason/purpose, the process is always a very painful one.
But the pain experienced from these two forms of what I’d call body markings is nothing compared to deliberate searing or branding on the body of a person.
In the days of the slave trade, slave merchants/owners would use searing hot metal with inscriptions of; their names to brand their slaves. Seal of ownership. And there were documents to back that up. All these were done to prevent a slave from either escaping or being stolen and resold by another slave dealer.
The branding on the body of the slave was visible for all and most importantly, permanent!
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When God said in Isaiah 49:16 that He has you engraved in the palm of His hand, He did not mince words. God understands the language of men and uses what we easily identify with and understand to explain what His heart says about us.
His love for us is deeply rooted to the extent He had to brand you and me inside His palm.
Pause for a moment….imagine using hot searing metal or chisel to carve or brand a name inside your palm. Get the picture?
Every human being with hands has some marked pattern inside their palm-unique to them alone. That marking is your personal identification on earth just like your fingerprint.
Those markings can never ever be erased unless of course, you lose your hands.
The same way you have those markings inside your palm is the same way, God has you marked or engraved in His palms. You can never be removed or erased. His love for you is that deep!
I recall reading a story of an international celebrity who had her husband’s name tattooed on a part of her body which was uncovered. Unfortunately, that marriage crashed and she had to spend money to surgically remove his name. The fickleness of human love.
But our God is not like man. His love for us is eternal. Even if we choose to stop loving Him today, He won’t stop loving us. The only sad thing is, our refusal to accept His love would cost us eternal life. He cannot force you or me to love Him back. He can only desire that we do.
Did you ever have a crush on someone in the past, sometime in your life? I did. You craved that person’s attention and hoped they would reciprocate their feelings to you. It was always heartbreaking (temporarily) whenever they disappointed you by not crushing back or by having a relationship with someone else.
This is kind of a similar situation between God and us; although, in this case, God has more than a crush on us. He longs for us and keeps calling us. He went as far as paying for our sins by dying a shameful death on a cross because He wants us to live with Him forever.
You are the apple of His eye. It ‘breaks’ His heart a million times over when we, the children He loves and ‘crushes’ on reject Him and end up suffering eternally for a crime He’s already paid for.
If you ever feel unloved by anyone, I have news for you. God loves you! Jesus loves you! He longs for you to give Him a place in your heart (because you are already in His). Let Him show you what real love is.
Just in case you do not know, your name is crafted, engraved, chiseled inside the palm of His hands. As those 6-inch nails were driven into his hands on the cross, your name was etched into His palms and His heart.
Here are more Sweet Love Notes from God: John 3:16, John 15:3, Romans 5:8, Jeremiah 29:11, Jeremiah 31:3, Isaiah 49:16
Iboro Tonye-Edet © 2020
