Have you ever looked back to your childhood and wished you could remember what it felt like to be one or two or three? Most of us can’t remember back that far, even if our parents tell us things we did or said. And the sad thing is, the older we get, the less we can recall!
I’ve met a lot of people in my lifetime and truth be told, I feel embarrassed and a little unnerved when they say, “Hi Jill!” and I say, “Hi!” and don’t finish with their name because I can’t remember it! I honestly don’t know how our pastor, who pastors thousands of people can recall so many of their names. There is either a trick to it or he’s been blessed with a great memory.
I also recall, especially at this time of year, the sadness of watching my dad in the last stages of his life. He had short-term memory issues and when he was sickest, he would forget easier than he would remember. Only once did this happen to me, but one day I walked into the nursing home for a family gathering to be with my dad, and he didn’t remember my name. I nearly burst into tears because Daddy always knew me. I visited him every week at least once, sometimes more, and his face always lit in a smile when he saw me. He never forgot his God or my mom or me…until that one day.
The sad part about being human is that it’s easy to forget things, even really important things. As I mentioned in the last post, Jesus reprimanded one of the churches in Revelation for forgetting their first love – Him! They had allowed the world to entice them with all of its deceit and charm and though they knew deep down they were His children, they’d forgotten how much that mattered. To them. To Him.
Sometimes we get distracted with life. Deceived by false teachings that Jesus warned would be rampant in the days before His return. We are enticed and driven by our own lusts, until we forget Whose we are. Can you relate? I know I can.
I can forget that God’s got this. He’s holding me and I can turn to Him at any given moment and will never get a busy signal. He wraps me in arms of grace, cups my face, lifts my chin, and tells me how very much He loves me. He takes my worries and fears and reminds me that He’s better at handling them than I am. When I get impatient, He whispers that in His time, He’s going to do something so amazing that I will have a hard time comprehending its beauty.
He takes the broken things and redeems them. He takes our forgetfulness and reminds us of what we once were. What we knew to be true. And that though we may walk away for a time – as David did, as Moses did, as Jonah tried to do, as Samson did…I could go on…but it struck me today that even Moses, the friend of God who saw God’s glory ran away for forty years. He knew he was supposed to be the deliverer of Israel (check out Stephen’s speech in Acts 7), but after he killed an Egyptian, he ran. And still God came and reminded Moses of Who He is and what Moses was going to do next. God never once forgot Moses, even if Moses tried to run from Him.
And, Beloved, the same is true for us. If we have known Him, loved Him in our past, but we ran away and are trying to hide from Him, He still sees us. He knows our name. And He is waiting with nail-scarred hands to pull us into His open arms and restore us. We just need to remember and turn back to Him. Confession isn’t as hard as it sounds. It’s just admitting to God the truth we already know about ourselves. And then let Him heal all of the broken shattered pieces.
He’s got a beautiful life planned for each one of us who trust in Him. Don’t let forgetfulness, even if it’s deliberate, like Moses and Jonah lived for a time, keep us from coming back to the only love that’s true. Your name is one He will never forget.
~Selah
#livegrace #remembertruth
