| REMEMBERING BACK |
| The past can give you hope for the future. |
| I will remember the deeds of the Lord. 77:11 |
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| Married people make it their business to remember how love began. Anniversaries recall their wedding day, year after year. Wedding rings remind them of their commitment. Wedding photos capture the moment when "two become one." In remembering the beginning of their love, couples often find new hope for the future. Forgetting, on the other hand, amounts to treason. If one person forgets the all-important anniversary, tears and anger may follow. An Anniversary Day The book of Psalms remembers too. When things get bad, these poems often refer to the past - particularly to the great events when, under Moses, the Israelite nation began. God freed the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, carried them through the Red Sea, gave them directions for living, and ushered them into the promised land. This miraculous beginning was as significant to Jews as the cross is to Christians. The Israelites even had an "anniversary day" - known as Passover - to remember it. Every spring Passover reminded them of their escape from Egypt. It's no accident that Easter often falls on the same week. Both days celebrate liberation from slavery. The memories weren't all positive. The Israelites could, in fact, be brutally frank about their early failings. Even as they remembered how persistently wonderful God had been, they also remembered how rebellious, complaining, and forgetful they had been. Yet they had one great, happy reason to celebrate: God had kept his promise to love them. |