7.8.2026 - Jody Duncan

Wednesday, July 8

Isaiah 49:16

God’s love is personal

We read today from Isaiah 49:16. Read the short verse now, or at the end of this devotion. What do these words suggest about the intimate nature of our relationship with God?

During the exile, God’s people despair that he has abandoned and forgotten them. These words are God’s assurance that he could never forget them. God has engraved the Israelites and the walls of Jerusalem into the palms of his hands, much as we might tattoo our bodies with the name of a late loved one. Such marks are permanent and deeply personal.

The Israelites are so much a part of God, they are ever before him.

Think of all the photographs, items and talismans you have around you to remind you of a person, an event, a beloved place or memory. Here in my office, I have an entire gallery of framed photos – not just photos of friends and family members, but also those of people we have lost: A dear friend who died of cancer 17 years ago … Alex Verhoeven … a beloved professor…

In other rooms, I have framed diplomas, posters from plays I wrote, a dishtowel on which a note from my late mother, in her own handwriting, has been embossed, trinkets from a trip to Ireland, a painting of my daughter, two wooden boxes holding the ashes of beloved dogs, and a little plastic wolf that figured in a game I played with my granddaughters, Hide Baby Wolfie.

I cherish all these items, while taking care not to idolize them. They are, after all, just ‘things.’ But such mementos are powerful in their ability to remind us of people, places and experiences that are deeply meaningful to us.

I do not think of God as having a physical body, and so, to my mind, his engraved palms is a symbolic image – but a powerful one. All of us who believe in Jesus were essentially ‘engraved into his palms’ when the nails were driven into them on the cross.

Our bodies are so personal, so sacrosanct, we are traumatized when our physical selves are assaulted or imprisoned or wounded in some way. Even the experience of someone standing too close to us or ignoring personal space boundaries can be irritating.

Our bodies are personal. God’s palms – real or metaphorical – are personal. And he has his people engraved there.

Let us give thanks today for our personal relationship with God, made perfect though the sacrifice of Christ Jesus.