NOTES for Isa 49:15

In the context of the prophecy about the salvation that God will accomplish in Christ, Deutero-Isaiah, the author of the second half of the book of the prophet Isaiah whose name is unknown to us, records these astonishing words. They are addressed to everyone and to each person, regardless of anything. How often we fall into despair, grumble, and take offense at God because it appears to us that He has abandoned us to fate! And it is not only that we fail to notice His benefits, fail to notice all His priceless gifts: light and air, food and work, the powers of life and life itself. They are, of course, given to us, and we are, of course, insufficiently grateful to God for them.

But we need much more: His compassion, His protection, and His deliverance of us from the dark prospect of death. This is precisely why it is so important for us that the Lord will never forget us, and that His memory and His compassion surpass even a mother's love, in other words, surpass everything we know in this world as love and memory. It is simply astonishing how secure life becomes if one relies on the truth of this promise of God. Even in the most terrible things, in suffering and death, hope appears if we believe these words.