Daily Devotional

Words are interesting. What we think something means isn’t always really what it means. That’s the case here in Exodus 2:24. It might seem strange to think that God “remembered” His covenant. Does that mean He forgot it? Not at all. In the Hebrew sense, remember means to turn one’s attention to. For over 400 years God heard the groanings of His people and it was now that He was going to turn His attention to it and act.

About a year ago I was in our backyard, and I heard something strange. It was the sound of a cat meowing, only it didn’t sound like cat, it sounded…smaller. Sure enough, after some investigation I found a small kitten in our bushes. I had no idea where this stray kitten came from, but as soon as my wife and kids were let in on the discovery it ceased being a stray and became “our” cat. As someone who is rather allergic to cats, I wasn’t totally on board for this, but I also wasn’t going to let a poor kitten starve.

My kids named the cat Sky (actually Grey Sky Spike Junior Hammond) and proceeded to spend as much time as they could with this cat. One day my wife ran into our bedroom with a horrified look on her face and told me, “Sky fell out of a tree and can’t stand up.” We took the kitten to a local vet but since the cat wasn’t technically ours, they wouldn’t take it. I decided to talk to animal control and since the kitten was a stray, they said they would take it and look to see if it was okay.

My kids were very upset, especially my oldest daughter who had really taken to the kitten. She asked if it would be okay, and I told her we would just have to see. Long story short, the kitten was okay! No broken bones and it sounded like everything was going to be fine. We let animal control know that we would like to officially adopt the kitten. It turns out, there’s a bit of a process when an animal is taken into animal control and it was 7 weeks before we brought the kitten, or by this time, the full-grown cat home.

I’m not sure if cats have thoughts, but if they do, I can imagine that our cat may have thought that the animal control center was his new home. After only seeing us for a couple of weeks and then not seeing us at all for 7 weeks, he may have even thought we forgot about him. What our cat didn’t know is how EVERY DAY, my oldest daughter asked me about the cat. She never forgot about the cat, even if it looked that way to the cat.

Sometimes our circumstances in life seem to be telling a story about a God who forgot about us, but that’s not true at all. God sees you; God knows you, and God is with you. God waited hundreds of years to deliver Israel. He didn’t wait because He forgot about them. Maybe He waited because it just so turns out that’s about how long it takes to turn a family into a nation.
I don’t know why God waits to do things in our lives, but I know He has His reasons. We can’t see behind the scenes to what He’s doing and what He’s preparing, but we can rest assured that He’s not sitting idly by. It may seem like nothing is happening, but God is always at work. He remembers you; He hasn’t forgotten you, and He will act for your good and for His glory at the moment He knows to be best.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.