“However, take care and be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live, but teach them to your children and to your children’s children.” DT 4.9.
I often joke about my memory as I get older. It can be frustrating when things I really want to remember, I somehow forget. I have heard people call this the “Teflon” effect. Other memories seem to be so deeply imprinted on my mind and heart that I have carried them with me throughout my life. My memory has both gifts and gaps.
Recently my daughter reminded me of a sweet childhood memory I had forgotten. She recalled coming to me for a morning hug. I would wrap my cozy bathrobe around both of us, with her little face peeking out and then she would stand on my feet and walk with me around the kitchen. It was a lovely, warm memory, and her retelling it brought it back to me vividly.
The silver lining to the elusive clouding of memory is that I am not alone on this journey. There is beauty and wonder in our collective memory as people who have shared experiences. The gift of memory, shared in our stories is an invitation into something far richer than my solitary life.
Moses spoke to the people and taught them to observe the law which God had commanded him to give to them, but the law had it’s meaning in their shared memory of God freeing them from slavery. This is what he urged them not to forget. They had personally experienced the plagues and first Passover which led to Pharaoh’s reluctant defeat, the terror of being pursued by the Egyptians and the parting of the Red Sea. Finally, they stood together at the theophany at Mount Horeb. They saw the blazing fire and dark clouds, and heard God’s voice declaring the covenant they were to keep. God had dramatically revealed first his powerful love and then the law which would make them like him; just, wise and in the eyes of the world, great. The shared personal experience of God’s love for them was what made the law meaningful.
We know the rest of their story, the ongoing struggle to be faithful to the covenant, because it is the foundation of our faith. In spite of the many ways they tried to remember, with more and more laws, the people often wandered. They got caught up in their day to day life and the novelty of the surrounding cultures. This is our story too.
Perhaps Lent is a time to remind us to “take care and be earnestly on our guard not to forget the things our own eyes have seen.”
What is my personal experience of God’s saving love? How God has revealed his love for you and others with whom you share faith? Christians share personal and communal experience of the God’s gift of Jesus, and his Spirit, both within and among us in our lives and liturgy. We need one another’s help to remember and not to forget.
Remembering and sharing our stories of faith makes our laws and traditions meaningful. Before we can wholeheartedly renew Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting and charity, our hearts may need to recall God’s saving power and presence among us.
Guest Blogger Jane Phillipson