God Remembers
Scripture – Genesis 8:1 (NRSV)
But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided.
Focus
God remembers. God remembered. God will continue to remember God’s own children. At the door of this year, with all the joys and challenges that we continue to navigate in our workspaces, our communities of worship, our Zoom rooms that feel like an ark indeed, our homes and neighborhoods: God remembers. We can hold onto this promise of both presence and power.
Devotion
In the Hebrew flood story, God instructs Noah to build an ark because rain would descend upon the earth for 40 days and 40 nights to destroy everything. What we may not remember is that Noah and his family were on the ark for a whole year.
They had been given a promise and one goal: to survive and stay alive. After the initial rains, most of their time was spent waiting for the waters to recede. Eventually, Noah would send a raven out one time and a dove out three times. The birds went back and forth until one day the dove did not return. Things would be different when they returned to land and they would be invited to partner with God in recreating the earth.
Tomorrow I will approach the receding of the waters as a place for recreation and redemption. However, today, at the beginning of this year, I want to hold sacred space for this thought: God remembered.
God remembers. God remembered. God will continue to remember God’s own children. At the door of this year, with all the joys and challenges that we continue to navigate in our workspaces, our communities of worship, our Zoom rooms that feel like an ark indeed, our homes and neighborhoods: God remembers. We can hold onto this promise of both presence and power.
God has a history of remembering. God remembered Sarah. God remembered Hagar. God remembered Abraham. God remembered Noah. We can trust in God’s unfailing love. And as the Holy Spirit continues to re-create our lives and pass over the earth, may the morning bring you word of God’s unfailing love. May the evening cover you with the wings of God’s faithfulness. God is attentive to you and longs to be gracious to you.
Friend, God remembers you.
Reflect
How have you felt like your prayers seem empty?
Have you had a hard time with God’s silence in the waiting?
Act
If God has felt distant to you lately, find God in the face of your neighbor. Pay attention this week to who shows kindness, both friend or stranger.
Pray
God of great memory, who has not forgotten the children that you have created—for you created our inmost being and even now sustain our beings—oh God who stores up mercy and whose love has no end, remember us and mend us. Speak to the dry and parched places that need your living water. Send forth your word and heal us. Open our eyes to catch you in the glimpses of daily beauty. Help us fight for joy, the thrill that you think about us with great joy as soon as we open our eyes in the morning. Remember us, like a father remembers his daughter, like a mother remembers her son, like a friend that is close enough to see the countenance of another friend. Amen.
Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Commentary on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: God Calls Noah and Creates a New World (Genesis 6:9-8:19)
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Inés Velásquez-McBryde
Chaplain at Fuller Theological Seminary & Pastor, Preacher, Speaker
Inés Velásquez-McBryde is a pastor, preacher, reconciler and mujerista theologian. She is the lead pastor and co-founder of The Church We Hope For. She is originally from Nicaragua, a third generation pastor, and the first pastora in her family. Inés earned her MDiv at Fuller Theolo...