We forget a lot. We forget what we had for breakfast last week, what we came into the room for, what happened on June 12 when we were five or twenty-five. Sometimes that is a good thing-we might otherwise be overwhelmed with too much information in our limited capacity. But sometimes, remembering is vital for us to thrive and to progress. If we forgot where we were going every time we left home, we would never get anywhere. If we forgot how to come home once we left, we could never return to that refuge, that place of nourishing and safety.
So the Lord builds reminder into our lives. Because He cares deeply about our knowing where we are going. And about our returning home.
He gives us rhythms of remembrance so we don’t forget what is most important.
Daily points of connection so we don’t forget where we came from and what we are doing here, built into those times that cannot be forgotten. Wake up, remember. Eat, remember. Go to sleep, remember.
He gives weekly times of remembrance in sabbath and sacrament so we don’t forget who it is that makes it possible for us to return. A time to set aside the distractions that so often keep us from remembering Him. He similarly gives yearly reminders in celebrations and holy days. Times to look back and see His hand.
He builds in remembrance to sacred clothing, much like the ancient Israelites who wore fringes with ribands of blue and scrolls of scripture on their foreheads and next to their hearts, to remind them of whose they were. We, too, remember the covenant relationship that binds us to Him and allows us access to His power to change and lift us every time we get dressed.
He invites visual reminders into our lives through art, symbols and people. Creation, light, beauty, mercy; all around us are suggestions to remember.
When we engage in these rhythms we tap into the power of remembering. We reengage our focus on Him and our Home. We turn aside to see, to feel, to experience those things that remind us who we are and what we have the potential to become. Hints of divine nature and destiny.
We need these rhythms regularly, continuously. Because it is so very easy to forget.
So He whispers remembrance into our days and our weeks and our years-into our very rhythms of living.
Remember what you are doing here.
Remember your way back.
Remember what you really wanted when you came.
Remember Me.
