Remember

One of the words I love, love, love is the word "remember." It threads its silvery tentacles through literature, from biographies to novels. It serves as an inspiration to poets in every genre of poems, from sonnets to odes. It speaks to us. It teaches us. It moves us.

How can it be otherwise when this poignant word embodies so many things that touch and move us? Such as the act of bringing to one's mind someone or something experienced in the past. Or bringing to mind something that should be acted upon. Not to mention emphasizing the importance of something asserted. As beautiful as classical literature explores and portrays it, though, its reflections on the word "remember" pale before the meanings enfolded in the life of the believer.

For as followers of Christ, "remember" translates not only into remembering to obey God's directives, but also remembering the past as a prerequisite to internalizing lessons learned through those experiences. Above all, I love what "remember" means when God is doing the remembering. When God remembers, it is always a prelude to something glorious. It tells us that He is about to move on behalf of His children.

In Genesis chapter eight, we find Noah in the ark. At this point, he had suffered through buffeting rains and the scary powerful shoving and pushing from waters released from the deep. Forty long, harrowing days of trusting God through an unprecedented event for which he had no experience from which to draw. Then the rain ceased and more waiting began. Day after day, the boat rocked in relative darkness, wandering back and forth over the now calm sea. One hundred and fifty days. Would this new "normal" ever end? it was then, and only then, that Scripture notes, "And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged ... And the ark rested ... And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry" (Genesis 8: 1, 4,13).

God remembered Noah. And when He remembered him, He did what was needed to help him.

Another "remember" story in the Bible is about Lot, Abraham's somewhat selfish nephew, who got himself into a pickle by choosing life in the immoral and godless cities of the plains. They were so bad, God felt the need to utterly destroy them, that very place where Lot lived with his family. Unlike what our natural inclinations might be, God didn't leave him to reap the woes he had brought upon himself. Instead, Scripture says, "And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt" (Genesis 19:29). How cool is that? God remembered Lot's uncle, His covenant with Him, and extended mercy and salvation to Lot for his association with Abraham!

The word used for "remembered" in this passage, as in Genesis eight, is zakar. It is a word meaning something beyond a mere mental exercise that brings a memory to the forefront; it implies a commitment to action with regard to a remembered covenant. For love of Abraham, for commitment to the promises He had made to Abraham, God extended undeserved kindness and mercy to his nephew Lot.

Then there is the story about the snarky Israelites, slaves for over 400 years in the heart of Egypt. A people who would be eternally characterized by their yo-yo like obedience to the God of Gods. Yet, even knowing that this vacillation would be a defining characteristic in their walk with Him, "God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob" (Exodus 2:24). Even being cognizant (after all, He is God, all knowing) of their imperfect future walk with Him, God extended mercy towards them. Remembering His promises to their forefathers, He paved the way for their liberty. Many miracles—and, sadly, many complaints—later, God brought His all-too-human people out of bondage. It is astounding to think that their imperfect following of Him did not deter Him from being Himself faithful to His promises.

And one of my personal favorites of God's "remembering" is that of Rachel, she of the barren womb. "And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb" (Genesis 30:22). For at least eight long years, during which time her sister, her nemesis, had born to the husband they shared six sons and a daughter, Rachel had remained barren. From her portrayal in Scripture, she comes across as perhaps a little spoiled. Yet God did not hold that against her. He knows it takes many years, many trials, much buffeting, to whittle away the jagged, ugly points of our selves. He knows that we are, at best, dust. And during those years when it must have seemed to her that she prayed in vain, God was listening. His answer to her prayer did not come at once. It must have seemed like the heavens were brass, that God was not listening, but He was! in His time, He remembered her and gave her the answer to her supplication.

So what do we see when God "remembers"? We see a God Who is faithful to His promises, even if we are not. We see a God Who does not forget us, even though it seems like nothing is moving in the Heavens. We see a God Who moves on behalf of His children, in their favor, when it is that perfect time He has determined is right. We see a wonderful, praise-worthy God.

That is why when I pray, I like to say, "Lord, remember ..." It is a prayer in which I can rest and receive comfort. For I know that when God remembers, all will be well.

"Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds"(Psalm 36:5).

"Thy faithfulness is unto all generations"(Psalm 119:90).

"If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself"(2 Timothy 2:13).