Graven on His Hands

*Until I figure out how to embed music in a post, you're going to have to click here to listen to the song that fits perfectly and inspired the stamp.
Here is the shortest summary of The Bible that you are ever going to get: The Old Testament details Israel's failure to keep The Law, and the New Testament tells how God ensured the fulfillment of that Law through His Son.
In one way, the Law was given, not to impart righteousness, but to make clear that righteousness is impossible apart from God. Christ's sinless life and substitutionary death on the cross make it possible for a Holy God to look at us and see his fulfillment of the Law instead of our sin.
(A person could spend decades in study and not plumb the depths of this truth~but not because I'm that deep. This is, however, a blog post about a stamp and not a seminary course.)

Isaiah 49 is part of God's promise to Israel that He will not nor could not abandon them, no matter how bleak the circumstances might look. In verse 16 He tells them, "Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands". Graven. We're familiar with that word. Carved. Gouged, Cut. Permanently.
In the New Testament, God's promise to one nation becomes a promise to all nations and the promise of salvation is extended to the Gentiles. To you. To me.
We can't obtain it for ourselves (that's the lesson learned from the OT). It's a gift. Although, I confess that I will never understand why God would choose to love me, I have no doubt that He does. The proof is right there "graven on the palms of His hands".
Here are some resources for more on this topic:
Hebrews 9, 10
The Book of Romans
The Goldsworthy Trilogy