“I will not forget you!” God.
Isaiah 49:15.

Stop for a moment and look at your palms. The lines you see are called palmar flexion creases. The three deep, prominent creases should look familiar to you since you were born with them—they were formed at around the 12th week of gestation. The creases allow the skin to adapt when our hands are active—stretching, folding, or fisting. Without them, our skin would sag.

What would we see if we looked at God’s hands? Figuratively, according to a song we’ve sung since the 1920s, we would see the whole world.

Literally, would we see creases like ours? We may, since we are made in His image.

When we meet Him, I expect we will see the nail holes that make it possible for us to stand in His presence.

But if God extended His hand to us today, palm up, we would see something for our eyes alone—our name. Right there, “Barbara Higby” is prominently engraved on God’s palms. My name, and yours, is inside His grasp, present during every God activity. Read it for yourself in Isaiah 49:16:

See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are ever before me.

Our names are etched on His palms—permanently, no ball point pen or felt-tip marker. He sees our parameters, our beginning and our end, our restrictions and freedoms, what lies before us and the experiences of our past.

When God opens His hands, He sees us, our name and the life He created.