Graven on His Palms
Today is the last day of general conference. Use this lesson between sessions or after the last one.
Start
In Isaiah 49, Zion says, “The Lord hath forsaken me.” God answers with a question about a mother and her baby.
Read Together
Chapters 48 and 49 speak to people who have lived through years of exile and wonder whether God still remembers them. In chapter 48, the Lord calls those years a furnace.
10Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.
13Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted. 14But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. 15Can 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. 16Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.
What It Teaches
A refiner puts metal in the fire to burn away what does not belong in it, and he watches the fire the whole time. The Lord says he chose his people in that furnace. He was with them through the hardest years of their lives.
Zion’s cry in verse 14 is what many people feel in hard times. God answers with a picture of a mother nursing her baby, the person least likely to forget.
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland described Isaiah’s question this way. “How absurd, he implies, though not as absurd as thinking Christ will ever forget us.”
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, “Behold Thy Mother,” General conference, October 2015
Then the Lord says he has carved us into the palms of his hands. Centuries later, the risen Savior invited the Nephites to come one by one and feel the prints of the nails in his hands and feet (3 Nephi 11:14–15). He still bears those marks, and they are for us.
Talk About It
When have you felt forgotten, and what helped you know the Lord still remembered you? Did anything at conference this weekend help?
Take to Church
The Lord will not forget you. He has graven you on the palms of his hands.