This is a day of remembering. Two hundred and twenty seven times in the Bible God tells us to remember :
But God remembered Noah,
God remembered His covenant,
Remember all the commandments of the Lord,
Remember the Lord who is great and awesome,
Remember the former things past,
Remember the word that I said to you, For I am God,
Remember the poor,
Remember what you have received and heard; and keep it...
and so on.
Maybe there are some things in our lives that are too painful to remember. They bring back memories of a difficult time, hurt feelings, a wrong decision made or fear. We don't like to let those memories resurface because they are etched in our minds as something we would rather forget. Not remember.
And then there are the memories that we hold on to with the tightest grip we can manage. Those many "firsts and lasts" and things in between that seem to invade every spare inch of our brains. We take pictures and video so we can always remember what we looked or sounded like. Little League games, dance recitals, you name it and we are there recording every moment for the sake of posterity. I've done it and keep doing it myself. It's a chance to hang on to a certain time period so we will always remember exactly what it was like. Pictures do that for us. They transport us back to the place where something special was happening. They help us remember.
Today with much love and thankfulness I am remembering my Mom and my grandmother. I have pictures. I have hand written cards. I have special items of each of them. I have a video that was recorded at a family reunion several years ago that I periodically get out and play. While I was recording a certain trio of little boys singing "Hakuna Matata", Mom and Nonna were talking to me at the same time. In the course of that conversation they both say my name. Sometimes I just like to hear them say my name one more time. It helps me remember.
While I have all those reminders of them, what I most often think about is their kindness, their sensitive spirit to those who were hurting. They both seemingly had the uncanny ability to attract every person in their sphere of influence who had any kind of concern or problem, and they would sit patiently and listen, involved in each word that was spoken and offer advice when needed. The feel of their embrace and the sense of their undeniable love is what speaks loudly today.
Twenty four days before Mom opened her eyes in Heaven, she wrote, " Some circumstances seem senseless--often seem too painful to bear--but I know this truth and stand firmly on it: God is always, in all things, up to something good in my life. His eternal good!"
I'm thankful for memories and I'm all about making memories. I have Treasures that will need to remember how God has been so faithful in their family. I want to be faithful in what they remember.
