Christmas: A Time to Remember

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