People often wonder why a woman, after going through the long period of pregnancy, the painful and complicated process of childbirth and the often-times post-natal health challenges, would take the subject of that process and dump it somewhere either to die or to for someone else to find.



Some of these children survive and some don’t. I once visited an orphanage called, ‘The Little Saints Orphanage’ here in Lagos. I left the place wondering how these beautiful children could have been given such a cruel and hostile welcome to this world of ours. It is quite a paradox that while some have been praying and trusting God for a child for so many years, there are others everyday giving birth to unwanted children.

‘Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee’. Isaiah 49:15.

In the above quoted scripture reference, God is asking us the question, ‘would a mother, one who is bonded to her child through breast feeding, forget that child? To be cruel and hostile to the child? To abandon the child nor caring what becomes of it? It sounds unthinkable, doesn’t it? But we know it happens. People abandon babies for different kinds of reasons. Some blame the child for certain misfortunes, some for career or educational purposes, there are indeed lots of reasons why people would take this sad course of action.

The Lord answers the question in a remarkable way, He says, ‘I know a mother may have many reasons why she would decided to abandon her baby, she may have reasons to forget her baby but I will not forget you’.   If there is anything that gives me confidence in the Word of God, it is the imperative and emphatic promises which one comes across as one traverses the length and breadth of the Bible.

I have personally experienced the manifestation of God’s unforgetfulness in my life. There are things I have prayed for in the past and afterwards forgot about them. Several years later, when these things come to pass, I am now reminded that I once prayed for them. It shows that while I forgot, God never did.

God may have chosen to forget our sins because He is a forgiving God, but He never forgets our person. He never forgets His promises towards us because His promises never fail. He never forgets the covenant He made with us because He never breaks His covenant towards His people.

Apart from not forgetting us, God does not forget our labour of love (Heb 6:10).  Some of us may have been involved in assisting or being a blessing to others and it may seem like we are not reaping any reward from what we have been doing. God does not and will not forget every single dime you have given as a blessing to a ministry, family or person even if the recipients forget and even become downright ungrateful.

There is always a unique closeness between a mother and a suckling child. The mother is sensitive to the needs of the child. She knows when the baby is hungry, when it needs to have a change of diapers, when the child is ill or uncomfortable. There is tenderheartedness in the way the mother relates with her infant baby. Touch the baby with intent to harm and you invoke the wrath of the mother.

God’s love transcends all this. He never forgets. The next verse in the text says, ‘I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are always in my presence’

Isaiah 49:16. This signifies that His people are always in His sight; His eyes are ever upon then and never withdrawn from them. In marriage, couples exchanged ring as a symbol of their love towards each other.

This symbol reminds them of their love and commitment towards each other even when they are quite a distance away from each other. God’s love transcends all that. A husband may remove his ring and be unfaithful to His wife, but God engraved us in the palm of His hands. To engrave is to carve, to impress or to imprint. All these are permanent symbols that cannot be removed by easy means.

God loves you too much to forget about you.

Steve O. Popoola



Steve Popoola was born in London but currently reside in Lagos, Nigeria with  wife Maris and their two children, Praise and Stephanie. He works in the IT dept of a bank. Formerly an active singer, he still sings occasionally and speaks at invited forums. He is moderator of the Biblpraise Fellowship Online and editor  of  Biblepraise Newsletter, a weekly Christian e-zine.. To subscribe, send blank email to biblepraise-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. He can be reached through His email address, stpopoola@yahoo.com, or visit his website at http://www.biblepraise.org