Remember

As I have aged it has become apparent to me that there are just some things I don't remember. Even when my friends and family tell what they recall about a certain event, of which I was a part, I still have trouble remembering it. And of course they look at me like I have lost all my marbles. That is not to say that I don't remember most stuff but there are some things that seem to escape my memory.

Have you ever thought about the word remember? We use this term probably more than we realize. "Hey! do you remember what she said last week?" "Do you remember what pair of shoes I wore with this outfit last time?" I'm sure if you thought about it you would agree that remembering is something we do often without even giving it much thought.

As I have pondered this word I decided to look up the first part of the word remember or the "re" part of the word to see what the dictionary said about it. This is what I found, "a prefix, occurring originally in loanwords from Latin, used with the meaning 'again' or 'again and again' to indicate repetition, or with the meaning 'back' or 'backwards' to indicate withdrawal or backward motion." What this amounts to, at least in my understanding, pertains to the idea that to re-member would suggest that one would be brought back to their original condition. Take the word return for instance. To re-turn would suggest that one had to have turned away from their original path and by returning they would in essence come back to their origin or beginning.

In my personal studies I have come to a certain awareness of the term "remember." In this reflection I would like to share how my new understanding of this term has opened up an amazing thought process of which I am eager to share with you.

While listening to a youtube video of Andre Rabe he was sharing information concerning his ideas related to how he believed God sees each of us. He indicated that on the night that Jesus shared the passover meal with his disciples just before his death he is recorded as saying, "...do this in remembrance of me." Now we could say that Jesus just wanted his disciples to remember him as a friend who had fellowshipped with them for some three years and when they broke the bread and drank from the cup they would have fond memories of those times spent together. Or maybe to re-member him meant something much deeper and more profound. I would suggest that Jesus wasn't indicating an earthly remembrance of himself to his twelve disciples.

Is it possible that what Jesus wanted us to remember was our origin in Him or to put it another way to awaken to our true design? As I have reflected on this over and over again it has assisted me to hear how "remember" has been used in other ways. For instance, Steve McVey, in his book, 52 Lies Heard in Church Every Sunday speaks of God remembering our sins no more, Hebrews 8:12. He uses an illustration about someone having one of their fingers accidentally cut off. They are rushed to the hospital to have their finger reattached surgically. He then indicates that to have that finger reattached could also be described as "remembering" the finger. 

For God to choose not to remember our sins would mean that he simply severed us from our sins and does not reattach them to us. I believe the scriptures indicate that God removes our transgressions from us as far as the east is from the west. So if Jesus wanted each of us to "re-member" him then perhaps it stands to reason that we were and are originally attached to him in our beginning because all things exist and consist in Christ. In Him we breathe and move and have our being. What I have found so intriguing about remembering is the idea that sin does not separate us from God. For Jesus to invite us to remember him is an indicator of our original and eternal attachment to him for you cannot remember unless you were a member once.