Do You Remember Me?

In the book of Joshua, when the Jews crossed over the Jordan River, they piled up 12 stones so that for generations to come when children would ask their fathers, "What mean these stones?" all would be instructed and know that God had brought Israel over on dry ground; and that He is mighty and should be feared (josh. 4:15-24). Those 12 stones were Memorial Stones.

That intrigues me. It reminds me that perhaps one of the worst fates is not to be killed, but to be forgotten.

In Hamlet, the final command of the King's ghost is, "Remember me." In Sartre's No Exit, characters in Hell are punished by scenes of their former friends and enemies carrying on with their lives with no thought at all of the departed. C.S. Lewis, in The Great Divorce, describes a dead artist raging that his work is no longer bought in the galleries on Earth.

And so it is vital that we remember the ultimate price that many others have paid for our freedoms. As President Abraham Lincoln said of the fallen heroes of Gettysburg, "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here!"

And yet our memory of someone's life can do nothing to affect a person's eternity. In the Day Of Judgment many would doubtless trade all the tributes of the world they have left behind for one sign of recognition in the world to which they go. "I never knew you" is a chilling epitaph when carved over the door to Forever in the Lake of Fire (Matt. 7:21-23; Rev. 20:11-15).

For this reason, the best Memorial prayer of Freedom ever prayed was that by the dying thief on the cross who cried out to Jesus, "Lord, remember me."  There were no parades on Earth, but, before the afternoon was out, Jesus would recognize him before the Father and invite him into Paradise (Luke 23:39-43). What liberty! What freedom! What a memeorial! I wonder when that Judment day comes for you, will you be known to the Master? If you do not now say to Christ, "Give me liberty", then one day you will have eternal death.

By Calvary's Red Glow,
Pastor David Blevins