It’s amazing how quickly time seems to fly by. Somehow we’re already stepping into May – days are getting longer, grass is growing greener, flowers and trees are starting to bloom, and at the end of this month our nation will celebrate Memorial Day. For some this is simply a marker that the end of school is close, summer vacations are within reach, and family barbeques are just around the corner. For others it is a time to remember – a time to honor all those who have served in the armed forces and lost their lives in service to our country preserving and protecting the freedoms that you and I enjoy each day.

But regardless of the particulars of how, or what, or why each of us celebrate Memorial Day, at the center of it all – its very name, “memorial” invites us to a posture of remembrance.

The ability to remember is a wonderful gift God has given us. In an instant we can be taken back to childhood days – skipping rocks across the water or playing with friends, or maybe just to an earlier time like when we went on a first date or experienced our first day at a new school or job. Through memory we can fall in love, taste that amazing dessert from that one special place, and enjoy a wealth of past experiences all over again.

All this is possible through the blessing of memory. Some of our memories bring us happiness as we recall those wonderful experiences, while others leave us sad and weeping as we remember them. Memories are also practical. If we couldn’t remember that a red light means “stop” then we might get ourselves into dangerous situation. If you weren’t able to remember what day it is, especially if it were your anniversary, then you might be headed for big trouble with your loved one. So, memories are practical. The problem is, sometimes our memory fails us, and we forget. 

Fortunately, God has surrounded us with memorials, in fact, the entire Bible itself is a memorial. And we are invited to dwell in it daily in order to remember. Each time we gather as a worshipping community, each celebration of the Lord’s Supper, each baptism, each Christmas celebration, and every Holy Week leading us to the joyous celebration of Easter is a memorial.

Remembering God’s grace in our lives is fuel for our faith as we move through God’s ongoing grace for us. And this makes our memory one of God’s most profound and mysterious gifts granted to us.

So as we commemorate Memorial Day as Americans, let us do so with deep gratitude for all that has been sacrificed for us by those who laid their lives down for the sake of our freedom. Most importantly, I pray that as followers of Jesus we would each take time to remember the extraordinary grace God blesses us with yesterday, today, and every day to come.

Pastor Tony