Memories

Jeremiah 31:34
34 “No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

Memories are interesting. Sometimes they are pleasant and other times they are sorrowful. We remember good times, vacations, the birth of a child with a warm heart. We remember a loved one who has passed away or moved to a far off land with fondness and adoration. We remember how someone may have hurt us in the past with a hardened heart.

Sometimes a picture, song or even a certain smell will spark a memory, but these catalysts are simply reminders to us. When we experience these sensations, it’s our own conscious choice to remember an event. Whether good or bad, it is our choice in the matter as to how much of the event we want to remember and how we want to remember it.

The word remember when used in the Bible means “to live again”, literally, to experience the past as if it were the present. Imagine if we wholeheartedly could do just that. What would our ritual communion on the first Sunday of the month be like if we experienced the last hours of Jesus’ life while we partook of the bread and drank the juice? If we lived those moments again, would we continue going through the motions? I think that we would begin to go through the emotions!

The hope that we have is that God has chosen to forgive us. Furthermore, God has made a choice not to remember our sins. He hasn’t forgotten them; God is not a senile old man. Because Jesus Christ was our sin offering, when God looks at us He sees the body of Christ and the Blood that has washed us clean. The vivid recollection of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is the only memory that God has when He looks at us.