God Didn't Forget Jonah, He Won't Forget You
Hello from way up north my friends! I’m off on vacation this week with my family and all 10 of us are way up in Lutsen, Minnesota on the north shore of Lake Superior. We’ve rented two condos for the week and are enjoying gorgeous scenery, some easy hikes, and time together. This 5 on Friday isn’t actually 5 things. I am definitely in vacation mode here, but I wanted to try and keep the writing momentum going even if it’s not a full post. I actually only have 1 thing to share this morning, but it feels important. Someone reading this today might need this reminder, so may this encourage you in whatever season of life you are in.
As I was putting my kids to bed tonight I told them the story of Jonah and something struck me about this story that I hadn’t remembered in years. After Jonah says he’s not going to Ninevah, and jumps on a ship heading the wrong way and ends up sinking in the sea, there’s this moment where the reader is wondering “what’s next for Jonah?” and the moment the fish appears to swallow Jonah, the reader realizes God did not forget him. God doesn’t forget us. So much of this story is actually a story of waiting. Once Jonah ends up in the belly of the fish, he has absolutely nothing to do but pray and wait. He can’t will himself back to shore, he can’t work to make things line up in his favor, he just has to sit and wait in the dark, not really knowing how things are going to end. But he knows God hasn’t forgotten him.
The first time I realized this story was a story of waiting, I was out of college by a year and waiting on God to make clear what was next. I had applied for seminaries, but the details weren’t lining up right (hello east coast seminary who completely lost all my housing paperwork…) and I just felt that it wasn’t yet time for me to leave Seattle and start school full time. But I didn’t yet know what else I was supposed to do. And that felt scary to me. I like a plan, I like to know the details, especially because I had roommates to consider. I was on a retreat with some of the other children’s ministry leaders from my church and on this retreat we took turns telling one another the stories we told the children throughout the year, using the beautiful wooden pieces from the Godly Play curriculum we used with the kids. One of the essential components of this particular way of teaching children is that we didn’t ask questions with right or wrong answers, we embraced their imaginations and let them wonder at some of the mystery of the Bible. Every question we asked them about the stories they heard had to start with the words “I wonder…”. “I wonder how Noah felt inside that ark? I wonder what it was like for Moses to see God? I wonder what you are wondering?” So on our retreat we did the same for one another. When the woman who told the story of Jonah finished, she sat back in silence, looked around, and said “I wonder what Jonah was feeling as he waited in the belly of the fish for God to do whatever was going to come next?” I remember starting to cry as I said “he probably felt the way I do now. Waiting. Uncertain. Impatient. Confused. Disappointed his first plan didn’t work out. Frustrated he couldn’t seem to make things line up his way.”
How many times in our lives do we feel that way? How much time do we spend waiting? We wait for test results, a treatment to work, a new job to be offered, an acceptance letter, a spouse, a child, a raise, retirement….so much of the human experience is fraught with waiting. And I can’t help but wonder if that’s so we have the opportunity to be reminded over and over again throughout life that very lesson Jonah was taught as a fish swallowed him whole—God does not forget us. Ever. In doctors offices and assisted living facilities and dorm rooms and in crummy work environments God does not ever forget us. He may seem silent. It may appear that He’s not doing anything. But over and over throughout scripture as people waited, God was listening. The Israelites crying out in Egypt for rescue. They waited 400 years. But God had not forgotten them. The people waiting for the Promised Land. They wandered and wandered but God hadn’t forgotten them. I don’t know what you’re waiting on in life right now. But friends, may you be encouraged that God hasn’t forgotten you. He hears those prayers, and one of these days you will see him act. It may not always look the way you expect. There’s no way Jonah anticipated a giant fish swallowing him whole, but I promise, the One who made you and knows you more intimately than you even know yourself has not forgotten you.
