Last week, heading into a new challenge and feeling a bit Eeyore-ish, my phone pinged. The text from my friend: Can I bring you a coffee?

I didn’t need a coffee. But suddenly, I wanted my friend to come bring me one. Really, I just wanted her to come.

When I opened my front door, she held a cardboard sleeve-encased cup in one hand, and a small gift bag in the other. I noticed some writing on the to-go cup that was much longer than my name or hers. She’d scribbled words of encouragement surrounded by hearts. She understood. It wasn’t caffeine she was delivering, it was love.

From the gift bag, I pulled out a small set of cards, each with a verse and a simple watercolor image. This was a gift that screamed "Nicole!" It wasn’t my birthday or our freindship-iversary. Why did my friend bring me these delightful cards? "The lady at the shop asked me if it was your birthday," my friend explained. "I said no. She said, Oh, it’s an I-see-you gift." The little black raincloud dispersed above my Eeyore-head.

God knows I need to be seen. Some days, more than others.

Gary Chapman wrote a powerful book, The Five Love Languages, describing how each of us gives and receives love best. Chris and I read the book as newlyweds and it helped immensely in learning how best to show love to each other. I think, if you touch on the right one, you will feel seen or help your beloved feel seen. But there isn’t one love language labeled "see or be seen." Maybe there should be.

God knows that about me, too. I know because he keeps a Book of Remembrance.

God’s Book of Remembrance

Malachi 3:16 says, "Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name."

What is this "book of remembrance," and how does it differ from the Lamb’s book of life? Let’s go down a rabbit trail. I’ll make it brief, promise.

Revelation describes the Lamb’s book of life in several ways. It records the names of the remnant. And no one will enter the New Jerusalem unless their name is written in the book. "The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into [the New Jerusalem]. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life" Rev 21:26-27 NIV.

So, the Lamb’s Book of Life is a record book. A list. I picture something like the book I saw on Ellis Island that recorded the names of every immigrant who passed through. If your name is in the Lamb’s book of life, you get to pass through to the New Jerusalem.

But that’s not what Malachi described in the book of remembrance. Malachi says God "listened" to them and wrote things that "concerned" him. In this book, God records what he witnesses about his faithful children.

What would God write down about his children? What’s worthy to be remembered by our Heavenly Father?

Our Pain: "Record my misery; list my tears on your scroll— are they not in your record?" Psalm 56:8 NIV. Those tears I cried alone in my room at spinal rehab? He saw those. I wasn’t alone. He saw me and my pain and put that down in his book of remembrance.
Our Love and Service: "God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them" Hebrews 6:10 NIV. Those hours of child abuse training that our volunteers do to serve in KidsMin? God sees the discomfort those volunteers endure and the sacrifice of time they put into faithfully serving in our church, and he write it down in his book of remembrance.
Our Days: "Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be" Psalm 139:16 NIV. He sees us, our physical bodies, before we’re born and already knows the day we will leave our physical bodies for eternity in Heaven. And he writes it down in his book of remembrance.

Seen and Known In Community

If I ever doubted that God sees me—and in my weakness, sometimes I do—I did not doubt it the day my friend brought me a coffee and an I-see-you gift.

This is how I know God made me for community. I needed the physical touch of a friend to know the personal touch of my Savior. What a privilege it is to be seen and known. To be remembered.

I love sending my subscribers special goodies like this list of 12 Verses to Help You Endure.
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