Remembering

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you.
- Deuteronomy 15:15

In the passage we looked at Sunday about Zechariah’s prayer (Luke 1:66-80), the first half of it he spent looking backwards. After his extended season of silence - 9 months! - he seemed to come alive to the reality that God had indeed been at work in the world, and in remarkable ways that Zechariah had not noticed before.

Zechariah models for us the sacred art of remembering - of looking back over our lives again with an eye to see what God has done. A dozen times in the book of Deuteronomy (and literally hundreds of times throughout the whole bible) we are commanded to remember. God reminds us because one of the most common problems we have is that we forget. We forget the ways God has come through for us before, we forget to focus on God’s goodness, we forget how much we have to be thankful for, and we forget the things of real value (like love, joy, time with people, worshipping in community, etc.). So the command for us today is to REMEMBER!

Take some time and reflect on the ways God has rescued you, remembering what it was like to feel lost and what it was like to be found. Remember the good times. Remember how you made it through the bad times. And give God thanks and praise today for all God has done for you.