Recent ‘Memories’ appeared in my Facebook pages of a trip I took with my oldest grandson to Washington, D.C., 11 years ago. My heart warmed as I looked at photos of that trip, including a visit to the Tomb of the Unknown during the Changing of the Guard.
Ps 63:6-7 talks about memories: “On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.” A Psalm of David when he was in the Desert of Judah.
David encourages us to “remember.” Yet as we remember, we will discover that memories may be pleasant, warm, touching the depths of our souls; or they may be sorrowful, wounding, touching the depths of our souls in much different ways.
Yet, whether wonderful or sorrowful I am so thankful for the capacity to remember. One of the saddest diseases is Alzheimer’s, when the capacity to remember is stripped away, and the familiar becomes unfamiliar, the recognizable unknown.
In Psalm 63, David remembered God in the night at a time when his foes were rising against him. He turned his memories to all God is and all God had done for Him. And in those memories David was strengthened.
Sometimes it is the past that provides courage and determination for the future. Often it is in looking back, in remembering all God has done for us that grows our faith in our present and raises sure hope for our future.