“You make sure that they remember–FOREVER–the night they played the Titans!” Coach Yoast delivers these words during an iconic scene in Disney’s Remember the Titans, rallying his beleaguered football team to action. He knew something they didn’t: On the gridiron, only action would solidify their memory in the collective imagination of T.C. Williams High School, causing others to tell of their deeds.

Isaiah knew something similar, because God’s actions on behalf of Israel were seared into his memory. For Isaiah, God’s “steadfast love” wasn’t just an idea or an abstract philosophical concept. It didn’t exist out in the ether but down in the dirt; in literal blood, sweat, and tears–in the blood of passover lambs and in the waters of the Red Sea and in the bonded hydrogen and oxygen molecules that flowed out at Meribah. God didn’t simply say he loved his people. He showed it, again and again through his deeds. Perhaps most especially, even through their suffering.

God identifies with the suffering of his people, even if that suffering is self-inflicted. Here in Isaiah, the Israelites were in the midst of some pretty terrible pain, experiencing God’s judgment against their idolatrous ways as they languished in exile. But God refused to allow their faithlessness to stand in the way of his solidarity with them: “In all their distress, he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them” (v. 9). Self-inflicted or not, God’s fidelity toward his people would not waver. He showed compassion, brought them to repentance, and forgave all of their sins. God would not allow his people to remain spiritually homeless but would instead return them from exile and give them a place to belong. In other words, God never took down the “Welcome Home!” banner.

But God went one step further. Despite the fact that the Israelites had a checkered past and had shown themselves to be hard-hearted over and over, God says something astounding: “Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely” (v. 8). Like a merciful parent who trusts their child even after he or she has just broken a window–effectively proving themselves untrustworthy–our Heavenly Father imputes pure motives to us. How can he do such a thing? Only by looking at us through the lens of the Lamb. God’s love makes possible such a secure home–a household where that trust can grow, relationships can flourish, and we can be given a place to belong.