From the Shepherd's Pen

A MOMENT OF REMEMBRANCE

I confess it has been years since I have celebrated Memorial Day the way I should. I have offered prayers at Memorial Day observances as the official “chaplain”, and I used to decorate the graves of loved ones when I lived closer to the cemeteries in which my relatives are buried. I honestly don’t know why I’ve fallen out of the
practice. It’s not that I don’t want to honor those who made sacrifices for my freedom. It’s just easy to treat this day like any other Monday on a three day weekend holiday.

It hit me hard when I read these words recently: “Traditional observance of Memorial Day has diminished over the years. Many Americans nowadays have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At many cemeteries, the graves of the fallen are increasingly ignored, neglected.” These words from an article about the history of Memorial Day remind me that it is important as a citizen to honor our dead, especially those who served in the military.

Did you know that a resolution was passed back in December of 2000 called the “National Moment of Remembrance”? It asks that at 3pm local time on Memorial Day for all Americans “To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to ‘Taps’.” I think that is a good idea, and one that we can all do wherever we are this May 28th. Christians will want to make that “moment of silence” a moment of prayer to thank God especially for those who sacrificed their lives for their country.

During that moment of silence it would also be a good time to thank God for his remembrance of us. God doesn’t just remember us on one moment on one day of a year, but he remembers us continually. We are told to give thanks “to the One who has remembered us in our low estate/ his love endures forever,” (Ps.136:23 NIV). We thank and praise God because he takes care of all of our physical and spiritual needs. “He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God,” (Ps. 98:3 NIV).

We forget that God never forgets us. God’s memory isn’t faulty like ours, so He has to ask us, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me,” (Is. 49:15&16 NIV). For a mother to forget their infant child is of course unthinkable. How much more unlikely is it that our loving Heavenly Father would ever forget us or our needs?

I am glad that there is only one time that God forgets anything, and that is when He promises to graciously forget our sins and remember them no more ( Jer. 31:34). The best prayer we could pray on Memorial Day during the “Moment of Remembrance” is the one King David prayed. “Remember, O Lord, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good, O Lord,” (Ps. 25:6&7 NIV). Remember to thank God for both His remembering and His purposeful forgetting of our sins!

Pastor Daniel Deardoff, Sr.

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