Sunset at CyberPort, Hong Kong
Have you ever thought of losing
your memory for sake of removing the pain, hurt and sorrow that you would never
want to remember, just because it seems too much for you to handle? I certainly
have had that idea, in the mist of all the crying and aching. However I would
never want to do that because without memory I not only lose all my painful
ones but also the happiest and joyful one. But most importantly I would lose myself.
It is because my memory is a part of who I am, or one element that makes me
become who I am.
In fact I want to argue that pain
and sorrow are ultimately beneficial because they reveal the greatest thirst
that deep inside our hearts when we cry out to God to remove that hurt. God did
promise one day there will be no sorrow or tears, until that day comes His
love, mercy and grace is enough to fill that gap, even though it is not meant
to be easy at all.
Talking about remember or remembrance it reminds me of what Paul talks about remembering who we were before we met
Christ:
…remember that you were at
that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and
strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the
world.
Ephesians 2:12
Paul wrote what Jesus said in the
Last Supper before He died on the cross:
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord
Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given
thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way
also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my
blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink
the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
We as Christians are not only
called to remember who we were, what Christ has done for us, but also to remember
the less fortunate ones:
On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel
to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the
circumcised, and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars,
perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of
fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to
the circumcised. Only, they asked us to remember
the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
It is always in God’s heart to
remember His people:
But God remembered Noah and
all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God
made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.
Genesis 8:1
So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of
the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.
Genesis 19:29
During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel
groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from
slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham,
with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew..
Exodus 2:23-25
There are many more examples
elsewhere in the Bible. Clearly God didn’t “forget” His people, but every time
God “remembered” someone or His covenant with someone, it indicates that He is
about to take action for the person’s welfare.
I remember while I was still a
student at Warwick one year around May/June while I was still in the mist of
all my exams, I decided one evening to have a walk after my dinner. Since it
was summer time and the Sun won’t set till 9 at night, it creates the perfect
time for me to have the last glimpse of the Sun before the end of the day. Not
far from my house there was a cemetery, and I walked pass it a couple of times.
But that day I decided to go in and have a look to see what it’s like.
I started off to be a bit nervous
while I was in the cemetery as it was my first time walking in a cemetery on my
own and probably first time since I became a Christian. I wasn’t afraid at all
I have to say as I have nothing to be afraid of. The feeling was a bit like
seeing an old friend after a while and you always find it a bit nervous somehow.
But not long after that, my heart started to settle by the quietness and
peacefulness in the cemetery, with the wind gently breezing through the air. The
only sound I could hear was the touching of the wind and the leaves and branches
of the trees and the singing voice of the mockingbirds at the background. There
was hardly anyone in there and it was exactly what I needed. There were rows
and rows of gravestones, hundreds of them, standing opposition to each other on
both sides of the paths. I began to walk down those paths, rows by rows, up and
down. As I walked along those gravestones, I started to read the words that
were graved on them –names, year of birth, year of death, messages from family
etc.
After walking for at least 5 or 6
rows, I sat down on one of the branches. Looking at all those gravestones, my
mind started to imagine what those people looked like while they were still
alive. At the same time I was wondered by a question that hunted my thought –
those who lay underneath their gravestones, who will remember them? Maybe their
spouse, their children or even their grandchildren. But how about in 20, 50 or
100 years time? Who will remember those people? Who will remember what they had
done? What legacy will they stand apart from those gravestones of theirs?
Suddenly I heard God spoke to me powerfully with authority across the quietness
of the cemetery,
“I remember them, every single one of them
who is my child. I remember their names, their faces, their deeds. Those
memories live in my heart. I will raise them up in the last great day, every
single one of them, and I will remember their sins no more.”
This is exactly what it is written
in Jeremiah 31:
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant
that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring
them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their
husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the
house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within
them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each
his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the
least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their
iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Jeremiah 31:31-34
We remember what God has done for
us only because God remembers us at the very first place. Christmas, it’s a
time to remember and also a time to look forward, not just for us, but for God
too! This meant a lot more than you would imagine.
Hong Kong
24.12.2013
