This year at BFA, “remember” is our theme. To remember is biblical, of course. Depending on translations and exactly whom you ask, the word or concept appears roughly 250 times in Scripture. We are told to remember our Creator (Ecclesiastes 12), to remember God’s commands (Numbers 15), to remember his provisions (Matthew 16), to remember his wondrous works (1 Chronicles 16), to remember how far we have fallen (Revelation 2), to remember the greatness of salvation (Isaiah 46), and to remember others in our prayers (Hebrews 13). Sadly, it seems no matter how often I read the call to remember - a concept that sounds so easy on the surface - I fall short all the time. It requires intentionality, and sometimes I’m disheartened by the fact that it’s a struggle because I fully believe that the myriad of ways in which God has shown himself faithful to me personally are worthy of being remembered.
One thing I’ve found that helps is a symbol. Often in Scripture, active remembering is accompanied by an active marking. The Israelites crossed the Jordan under Joshua’s leadership and were told to grab 12 stones to set up as a memorial, a marking to remind future generations of the miracle. God himself set the symbol of a rainbow in the sky after he “remembered Noah” and so that we forever remember his promise to never flood the earth again. Perhaps my favorite symbolic marking is the taking of communion. “As often as you eat and drink it, do it in remembrance of me” (1 Cor 11:24-25). The Lord knows how fallible our minds are, how easily we forget or ignore, so he gives us symbols to help. It’s why remembering so often appears in imperative form.
To remember well is an honorable choice and can lead to deeper intimacy with the Lord. That’s our prayer for our students and our whole community this year. In Isaiah 63, the prophet sets about to actively recall God’s faithfulness to Israel (v. 7-14), and it overflows into a heartfelt prayer on their behalf (v. 15-19). I'm still hunting for the right symbol as I seek to convey this theme to our Middle School students, but for now, I'll tell them that remembering is for our good. It rights our perspective on the past because it spots God in the picture, allowing him to show us how he was present all along. "I will remember the things the LORD has done!" (Psalm 77:11).
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