Just a few weeks ago a hurricane battered the Texas coast and dropped trillions of gallons of water across many cities surrounding Houston. Ya'll remember that, right? The damage is still being assessed and water is still receding in places. 

I'm not really one for writing about current topics, and well, I guess if it was 2 weeks ago it could hardly be called "current". And though everyone has probably already read their fill of social media posts and blogs and news sources about Harvey, I did have a few thoughts I feel are worth sharing. 

Pretty much as soon as the storm made landfall social media and news sources began blowing up about what was happening. (I know, because even though we're 2 hours from the coast, we were stuck inside for several days of rain and had nothing to do but watch and wait). First to be damaged were cities like Rockport and Port Aransus, but soon media coverage turned to the rising waters surrounding Houston.

Over the next week I saw a trend that I found interesting. Once people began talking only of Houston many people turned to social media with a complaint - "What about Rockport? What about us?" They shared they felt overlooked and forgotten by major news programs and that no one was remembering the initial damage the storm had caused. 

A few days later, after the storm had moved up North East of Houston and then onto into Louisiana (causing considerable flood damage there too), the cries again became, "don't forget about our little town!" and "It's not just Houston that was hit hard". 

Last week wild fires were ravaging Montana and California and many other Northern states. Again, people on social media kept asking, "What about us? Does anybody realize that half our State is on fire?". 

And now just a few days ago Hurricane Irma crashed into Florida, and I could already see it...the people who were affected by the last tragedy ultimately feel forgotten when a new tragedy occurs. It just so happens that the first few weeks of September have held a lot of tragedy for a lot of people in the United States. 

Homes and businesses have been totally destroyed, life-savings gone, land drenched and scorched, air and water polluted, thousands without power or places to live...it just goes on and on. In the midst of it all, regardless of social status, location or ethnicity, humans are asking the same questions.

Does anyone see what's happened? Does anyone remember? Is anyone noticing how much damage has been done and how much pain we're in?

I'd like to say yes, and maybe the #neverforget campaigns will stick around for awhile, but honestly, the storehouses of compassion that one nation holds, gets sucked dry, pretty quickly.

Our attention spans are about as long as our twitter posts. Time marches forward and new events happen and we hardly remember the millions hurting from a month ago. (I mean, does anyone still have Charlottesville on their minds right now?)

So what then, is the answer to humanity's reach for someone to see, for someone to remember, for someone to care, in a way that lasts longer than a fundraiser or a news cast? 

It's believers getting up close and personal with those who are hurting and sharing the simple truth - He doesn't forget. It's believers who have walked through pain and tragedy, or who are walking through it right next to their unbelieving neighbor, who say "God hasn't forgotten you. He hasn't overlooked you."

He is the God who sits enthroned above the earth, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth. And you know what He does? He raises the poor out of the ash heap and seats them with princes. He has compassion on the sons of men. (yes, what is man that you are mindful of him? Ps. 8)

I love this promise God makes to Israel in the book of Isaiah. He says, "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast, and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me."

He doesn't forget. He doesn't forget Houston or Rockport or Montana or Florida, He doesn't forget the broken and lowly, He doesn't forget those who have lost loved ones, He doesn't forget pain and suffering. His storehouses of compassion never run dry, He has enough compassion for every hurting heart - we just have to go and let people know about it.