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Jan 19, 2023 06:00am

A Forgetful People

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“Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His precepts, and His statutes which I command you today.” – Deuteronomy 8:11 (AMP)

I’ve been getting some interesting mail lately. Brochures about burial insurance, invitations to diagnostic hearing clinics, and offers for estate planning are arriving weekly. The daily trek to the mailbox, filled with reminders of mounting geriatric concerns, is only a good recipe for conflict with the mailman. My husband now gets the mail, since…well, I can’t hear half of what he’s saying.

It’s true, we’re all aging. I try to fool myself into thinking it’s a slow process, but needing “better light” to read, post-it notes for reminders, and handy calendars are proof I can’t ignore. Perhaps that’s one reason I treasure memories…like my Dad’s laugh, our family’s severe lack of musical talent, and my nose being broken twice! (I can explain.) Truly, a simple exercise in remembering, can move us forward with courage to tackle something new, or like the Hebrew people, we can look back to look forward. When we remember God’s faithfulness, there is always a reason for celebration. Our focus becomes the eternal, not the temporal. It connects us to The Source. The blessing visits like an invited guest through the remembering.

We find the attribute of God “remembering” in chapter eight of Genesis. He remembered obedience and He remembered life! He remembers the sparrows and He certainly remembers His own children. The one distinct thing He chooses not to remember is the sinful past of believers who come to Him for forgiveness. That’s worthy of supreme celebration! Cue the confetti.

What’s worth remembering to you? Do you possess a storehouse of varied memories, delicately personal, that you hold in your heart? I hope so. The gift of remembering can draw out the depth of gratitude from moments of blessings we want to savor or revisit. Memories can gift us back, even momentarily, things we have “lost” or people we ache to hold again.

Memories are timeless treasures, reminders of love shared, and celebrations of God’s faithfulness. Cultivate remembering and be reminded that amongst the mundane of everyday life, God is fashioning renewal and restoration presently of epic proportion. Its harvest is sweet, comforting, mood-shifting, and life-changing because it gives us a chance to go back and feel things again. I have read that memories are the closest thing to personal time-travel, even if they sneak out of our eyes and roll down our cheeks. There is so much gratefulness in remembering. Learn the lesson of making your moments, His story. That’s a legacy worth remembering.