The Bible doesn’t say how long it took Noah to build the ark, but it must have taken a very long time. Finally, it was finished, and God told Noah to get aboard. So, Noah and his family entered into the ark, and it started to rain.
It rained for just short of 6 weeks. Then, for another 150 days the water stayed on the earth, and Noah stayed in the ark. That’s over 6 months of waiting since God shut the door.
Sometimes, what we’re going through feels like that. But take comfort in what happened next: “And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged.”
This doesn’t mean that God forgot Noah like we forget things. When the Bible says God remembered, it means that God did what he promised he would do.
In our second passage, Isaiah prophesied about feeling forsaken. The text calls to mind a woman’s love for her infant child, and says the Lord has more compassion for us than that. He will not forget us. He has graven us upon the palms of his hands.
Sing and be joyful. The Lord has comforted his people. He will comfort you.
The word remember in the Bible doesn’t just mean call to mind. It means to focus on a memory in a way that brings about an appropriate action. For instance, when Genesis 40:23 says that the chief butler did not remember Joseph, it doesn’t mean that he didn’t think about him. It means that he didn’t tell Pharoah about him as Joseph had asked. This is relevant to us, because God remembers us in this way, and he wants us to remember him (in how we live our lives).