As a woman who was abandoned by her family for speaking out about being sexually abused as a child, and subsequently abandoned by two husbands, I know the utter grief of feeling forgotten. So when I walk through the usual Sunday crowd of homeless people and others in need seeking opportunities to share the Gospel and to minister the Lord’s love to others, I know the depths of pain of being rejected, abandoned, abused, lost, broken, and forgotten. I know what it feels like to live knowing the people who are supposed to love us most in life have chosen to look away, and even to walk away. This past Sunday, added into the mix of my own history and the tough stories of all those gathered around for the preaching, meal, and clothing distribution in the park were paralyzed dogs Mr. Simeon and Miss Mercy, who could have been forgotten because of their own challenging stories. The dogs were hit by cars and left paralyzed. The people were hit by life and left broken. So many forgotten.
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| Paralyzed dogs Mr. Simeon and Miss Mercy with a friend at outreach for homeless and others in need |
For the truth is we live in a world in which no matter how much people profess to love, and make their efforts to give, so many choose to look, and to walk, the other way. So many choose to leave others forgotten. And the forgotten, like myself, like the homeless, like others who are broken, and the dogs with their broken backs and inability to walk like dogs walk, we can all be so easily forgotten in this world. So left behind.
But alas, there is one who never forgets us. And He is the one who created us. And no matter how much the world chooses to look, and to walk away, God loves His Creation. So much so, in fact, that He sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ to the cross to pay the penalty for the sins of this world so that those who repent and believe in Jesus can have everlasting life and the promise of eternity with God and without all this world’s pain. God has not forgotten the ones the world so often forgets. And I am reminded that God’s children have a responsibility. We have a responsibility to love the Lord with all our hearts, to love others as ourselves, to share the Gospel of Christ, and to remember the forgotten.
The next time you walk down the street and are tempted to look the other way when you stumble upon a man suffering, the next time you stand in a crowd and yearn to walk away from a woman in dire need, the next time you watch the news and want to pretend that bad stuff isn’t happening, why not turn to the Lord instead in prayer and ask Him how you can remember the forgotten.
When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up. Psalm 27:10 KJV
For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 39Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Matthew 25:35-40 NASB
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8which He lavished on us. Ephesians 1:3-9 NASB
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