Memory

 "This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord.  I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people.  No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.  For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."  Hebrews 8:10-12  NIV

God says in the New Covenant through Jesus that He will remember our sins no more.  You know, that strikes me as somewhat of a miracle.  Here we have our God who knows everything about us ...past, present, and future...saying that, if we but accept His New Covenant in Jesus, He'll not only forgive us but will totally wipe our slates clean and FORGET all of our sins.

September 21st is World Alzheimer's Day.  My Dad died from this terrible disease, and God has allowed me to care for several others with various forms of dementia, most commonly Alzheimer's. I've seen first hand the heartbreak it brings to families.  Nancy Reagan was right.  It truly is "the long goodbye."  I had the opportunity a few years ago to speak to a group of residents at one of our local nursing homes.  The words seem to be appropriate this week as we pray for a cure for Alzheimer's Disease, and for peace among those who care for their loved ones.

"I have been amazed for some time now by the miracle of the human brain.  Each of us uses only a small portion of the available nerve cells in our brains.  Our brains control the involuntary aspects of our lives, like breathing and blood circulation, as well as the voluntary aspects of our lives, like our senses, our thought processes, and our memories.  Our senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch keep us in tune with what's going on around us, and they also provide the input for what goes in to
our memory banks.

As we age, we sometimes lose what scientists call our short-term memories, like where we park our car in the Walmart parking lot, what we may have eaten at our last meal, or the name of someone right after he introduces himself.  Scientists have found that situations to which our senses are subjected repeatedly, or those which may have more of a lasting impact even after a single exposure, tend to go into our long-term memory banks.  Sometimes we affectionately refer to these deeper, long-term memories as being locked away in our hearts.  My short-term memory is certainly not what it was 20 years ago.  The good news is that we still keep wonderful memories locked away in our hearts – our deep, long-term memory banks.

Who can forget all the wonderful sensations that our eyes, ears, noses, tongues, and hands have brought to us over the years.  Who can ever forget seeing a mountain or an ocean for the first time?  Who can forget the face of your wife or husband on your wedding day?  Do you remember seeing your children immediately after their births?

Can you remember falling asleep as you hear the rain falling on the roof or outside an open window?  Can you remember the voice of your mother or father calling you to supper?  Do you remember the silence of a snowfall?  Do you still hear the giggling of your brothers and sisters as you all tried to go to sleep on Christmas Eve night?  Can you remember the words of one or more of your school teachers or Sunday school teachers?

Do you remember the smells in your grandmother's kitchen on Sunday at noon when everybody gathered for dinner?  Who can forget the smell of freshly cut grass, or a fragrant rose, or the air after a spring rain? Do you remember the smell of wood smoke or coal smoke in a fireplace on a cold winter night?

Can you remember the taste of hand-cranked, homemade ice cream?  How about the taste of warm, homemade bread right out of your mother's oven?  Who can forget the taste of grandmother's fried chicken, or watermelon in the back yard, or cotton candy at the county fair?

Do you remember the touch of your mother's hand when you were ill, or your father's strong hand on your shoulder when you were learning to ride a bicycle?  Can you feel the warmth of a handmade quilt on a cold January evening?  Can you still feel falling snowflakes on your tongue or a warm bath after a hard day's work?  Will you ever forget the touch of your husband or wife as you walked hand in hand at the end of the day?  Can you still feel the cold, wet nose of your dog as he tried to snuggle under your arm?  Do you remember feeling the waters of your baptism?

You see, I believe that God wants us to keep these memories so that we'll know a little about heaven before we get there.  That's why He makes sure that we store them in the deepest, most secure areas of our brains.  He is especially kind in allowing us to continue to see in our mind's eye the faces of the dear ones with whom we have shared these memories so that when we see them again in heaven we will not forget them or the pleasant memories associated with them.

God also uses our senses to produce memories that remind us of His presence in our lives.  In September 1996 our daughter Jennie was involved in a serious automobile accident.  I can still hear the voice on the other end of the telephone as clearly as it was on that morning at 2:00 am, "Do you have a daughter named Jennie?  She has been involved in a serious automobile accident."  I can remember the voice of my wife as she prayed aloud in the car on the way to the scene.  I can remember the flashing lights of the emergency equipment, ambulances, and helicopter.  I can remember the smell of the diesel fuel from the vehicles.  Most of all, I remember the voice of my daughter after she was extricated from the small truck in which two of her friends and she had been riding, "Daddy, I'm sorry," she said.  I held her hand for a few seconds and then I knew that God was going to take care of her.  After two major surgeries and a lot of rehabilitation, fractures of Jennie's pelvis, hip, leg and forearm began to heal.  She now leads a normal life as a mother of three great kids.

I think that God allows me to hold on to the memories of this accident as a daily reminder of His presence and power in my life.  He seems to know which images I need to store in long-term memory and which are OK left in short-term memory where they may get lost.

So is it really important to remember what we had for breakfast this morning or what we had for dinner last evening?  I think not.  The memories that are really important are locked away in our hearts – our long-term memory banks.  The next time that you can't remember where you put your glasses or your sweater, remember that our God is also forgetful.  Through His Son Jesus, He is able to forget all of our sins."
Peace