Wow Moment with God

As you may have noticed, you never quite know what you might find here on my blog.  I write about a lot of random thoughts and observations, tell funny (I hope, anyhow) stories about my kids or things that have happened around here, and sometimes I'll post about things that happened when I was younger.  Generally, I like to keep things light and fluffy here, since I'm not very "touchy feely" when it comes to discussing my innermost feelings.  However, I've decided that I need to do something a little more from time to time.  (Don't worry, there will still be plenty of corny jokes and random thoughts forthcoming.)

I was raised in church, and became a Christian at a young age. I've kind of "coasted" in my faith for a long time.  It's not that I'd turned away, or stopped following Him at all, but I hadn't been growing as a Christian-I was just kind of rooted in place-still praying, still believing, but not knowing where to start with Bible study (although I was reading it), and not being very faithful in my church attendance.  That started to change a couple of years ago, very slowly.  God's been working on me, and I need a lot of work!  I've always said that if God wants to tell me something, He pretty much has to hit me over the head with it, and that's been happening more and more frequently.  I've started to refer to these times as Wow Moments.  I've decided that I would like to share some of these Wow Moments here-I pray that they will encourage or inspire others in some way, but if not, at least by recording them, I'm allowing myself not to forget them. 

My Connection Group/Bible Study Group for church is doing James MacDonald's Gripped By the Greatness of God. I've already had several Wow Moments in this study, and we are only in Chapter 3!  It's dealing with Isaiah, which I find is a difficult book to read, so this study is really helpful. Today, as
 I was catching up on the week's devotionals (yeah, I was behind-refer to the title of the blog, LOL), I ran across this verse:

"Can a woman forget her nursing child, and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.  Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands." Isaiah 49:15-16 

Now, this was written long before Jesus was ever born, but envision Jesus' nail scarred hands.  Picture Jesus looking at His hands, and thinking of you with love-because he DOES think of you with love!  He has inscribed us on the palms of his hands because he loves us THAT much.  Not because we deserve it, or because we've earned it, because we never could, no matter how "good" we are.  God, the creator of the universe and every living thing in, it cares about our problems(small, large, whatever)-yes, we'll still have problems, but he will be there with us in our trials, holding our hands, loving us, and guiding us if we listen hard enough, and wait upon Him.  Waiting is the hard part-but things happen in God's perfect time, as part of His perfect plan-He is sovereign.
If we wait, God has this promise for us:

"Those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles.  They will run and not get tired." Isaiah 40:31

The next time you are worried, or lonely, or feel unloved or insignificant, remember Jesus' nail scarred hands, and rest in the comfort and overwhelming joy at the fact that He has written your name there if you are a follower of Him.  He hasn't forgotten you, and He loves you unconditionally and always will!

This particular topic isn't new to me, really, I know that God loves me, but that first verse, combined with an image of Jesus' hands, really overwhelmed me all over again with how much He loves me, and the huge significance of what He's done, despite my imperfections.  It was a major Wow Moment!