I Remember (11/107/2023)

This morning, a little plaque caught my eye and burned into my memory: It’s hard to forget someone who gave you so much to remember. It was given to me as a gift shortly after my older sister, Betty, died. Whenever I see it, I think of her but also a host of others who have touched my life and that touch left a mark on my soul. And always, I eventually come to Christ. And I say, “I remember.”

Today will be a day of remembering for me. I will be joining with a group of parish women to host a luncheon following the funeral of one of our beloved parishioners. We will hold him and his family in our hearts and minds as we serve. And then this evening, there is the grief support group that I facilitate at our parish, a place for our parishioners to come to share their grief, their memories, their love for ones lost, and their support for others grieving as they are. It will be a day filled with remembering because there was love.

November is a bittersweet month for me. It marks the anniversary of both my father’s death and my sister’s death. It is a time of All Saints and All Souls and Veteran’s Day, a steady stream of calls to remember those whom we have lost but who are not lost, who we believe still live, in the presence of our LORD and all the angels and other saints.

Last night, as a group of women met to study the scriptures, we read Isaiah 53. It is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful and poignant messianic prophecies of Christ’s loving and selfless gift to us. It is a Lenten reflection for me every year as well as a reflection just prior to the Feast of Christ the King coming up at the end of this month. As I read the text, I picture our LORD upon the cross, above him the sign “King of the Jews.” To onlookers, he looked anything but a king; however, we who remember know it was the most “kingly” thing anyone could do, to die for the life of others.

When I was learning Hebrew and studying the texts in their original language, I was blessed to learn about wisdom from the book of Proverbs and that wisdom is essentially memory, taking in what is and learning from it. As I sat this morning in prayer after seeing that plaque, I thanked the LORD for the gift of moments of learning and living that led to memories and to my being able to profess, “I remember.”

But then I heard the question, the thump. What will you make of those memories? And I understood. Those memories are not a personal treasure for me but rather a directive, a commission to live as one who has learned from the loving example and selfless sacrifices of others, most especially of my Redeemer. May “I remember” be a means to rouse me to faith and good works.

As we continue our journeys in faith, hope, and love, may we allow the memories of others who have shown us the path of loving righteousness to guide us and to illuminate our world as we, too, seek to make our way to our LORD and reunion with those faithful servants who have gone before us.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.