Last evening, I was the cook for Bible Study. I made spaghetti for the group and served it in my “memory bowl.” And as I placed the large bowl of spaghetti on the table in front of the group, I shared the story of the bowl. I made it while on family vacation as a utilitarian memory, a symbol greater than its current purpose, one that would remind me of my time with family every time I used it.
My life and my home are full of such symbols. It’s not that I wouldn’t remember without them; it’s more that their presence spurs me to remember more frequently and more vividly. This month I took an extended trip with my husband, and I bought a coffee mug and a black hills gold ring as memory symbols. And daily as I put on my ring, I think of some moment on that trip and how it added to my relationship with my husband or my understanding of him. Yes, I am still trying to learn about him after 56 years together – he’s pretty deep and multi-layered, I’ve found.
On our master bedroom wall, there is a crucifix that we received for our wedding. It carries so many memories, not just of our wedding but also of my life in Christ and Christ’s love for me. Whenever I gaze at that crucifix, I realize I was on His mind as He suffered that day. He gave Himself so we might live; He gave Himself so I might live. You see, I’ve learned over the years that Christ is personal. He saved humanity, and He does this by saving one person at a time. It’s personal.
This same crucifix is the one I looked at that fateful day over 50 years ago when I questioned my father during a painful period in my life about his statement when I was a child that “God takes care of good people.” He asked to look at a crucifix; I looked at this one. Then he told me, “There is no one more 'good' than Christ. Do you see how he is suffering? God does take care of good people, but it doesn’t always look like what you think it should.” It was in that moment, as I contemplated my father’s words and the image of that cross that I felt Christ call me, “Come closer.” And every day, as I gaze at the crucifix, I remember that. “Come closer.”
Are there symbols in your life that draw you deeper into the mysteries of life, into the mysteries of our LORD?
I recall years ago studying the scriptures for my master’s degree. I remember discovering the identity of wisdom – it is memory. Read Proverbs 8. Our memory allows us to grow in our faith as we remember the LORD’s loving power and presence, to go deeper in hope knowing that the LORD keeps promises, and to enlarge our love as we recall all the LORD’s love that has brought us into being and in which we live and move and have our being.
As we go forward as disciples on the way, let us not forget what has come before. Let us use our memories of what has been to stir our hope for what can be. And when we see something that reminds us of how blessed and how loved we are and have been, let us stop for a second and with authentic gratitude remember.
Until tomorrow, let us all love well.
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