Why is it some nights when sleep eludes that the mind begins to roll back and do funny things, like make a list of your life’s most embarrassing moments. Last night.
The first one that popped into my head was my sophomore year in high school. I tore a ligament in my knee playing basketball, and was helped to the nurse’s office, where it was determined I needed to see a doctor and my dad was called.
Now in 1962 gym uniforms were not as cute as they are now. Mine was green, one-piece bloomers with elastic at the knees. It is not something anyone would want to be seen wearing. They put me on a stretcher and called someone to help my dad carry me from the nurse’s office to the back of her station wagon. The boy who showed up was the star quarterback of the high school varsity football team, on whom I had a crush.
My dad had the head of the stretcher, my “crush” had the foot. Going through a doorway my dad rapped his knuckles on the frame and dropped the stretcher. So, me, in my green bloomers, knee wrapped in ice, slid not so gracefully off the stretcher and hit the floor, where I then had to be “reloaded” by my “crush” and father.
It was not my best hour and why in the world would I, 60 years later, still be remembering it in the middle of a sleepless night?
To answer my own question, it is both human nature and the prompting of the enemy of our soul to always bring up embarrassments and our sins. I have done a lot of stupid stuff in my life, far more embarrassing than this silly moment. I have sinned. I have spoken out things that should have been left unspoken and done things that should have been left undone. I remember and the enemy of my soul remembers.
But, my God has promised not to remember. In the New Covenant He has promised, “For I will be merciful to their wrongdoing, and I will never again remember their sins.” [Hebrews 8:12 HCSB]
That does not mean God is “forgetful.” It means that when we are under the protection of the salvation of Christ Jesus, our sins will never be held against us (remembered). Hallelujah! Amen!!
