The line up was now complete. Though I would be standing behind a thick sheet of one-way glass, I still felt like the suspects would be able see me. This would not be your typical police station lineup by any stretch of the imagination, as confirmed by the extensive controls and security. It was told to me that I was being given the opportunity to see if I recognized the culprit or culprits that were suspected of plundering mankind’s dreams. “Remember!”
Something didn't seem right about this situation though. I was being called on to recognize and positively identify someone or something that I wasn't sure I had ever seen. In the process I would be face to face with people and events that supposedly had collided with my life. The collision had carried with it the full intent of bringing misery to my remaining days on the planet. I would be able to (with a single finger) cast the full weight of condemnation onto whomever or whatever I chose. I was ensured that this was an opportunity of a lifetime, but I was starting to feel that this was a ploy to rob me of my future security. “Just take a peek ...what will it hurt?” “Point em' out and they will be gone!” “Dragged away, chained up, cast out, and the key thrown away!” “Remember NOW!”
When I peered through the one-way glass, I was shocked by what I saw... the perpetrator was me; I was standing there in all of my pitiful anti-glory; shaking violently; pointing back at myself and screaming “I told you so!”... “God has it in for you!” … “He is the one who has allowed pain and hindered happiness!” ... “He is has limited your goals, your dreams and your health and caused your misery!” I was Horrified by what I was experiencing. Even worse, I found myself agreeing. I sensed the weight of the chains of shame that were now rattling outside the door of my wounded heart.
Ecclesiastes 12: 1 “Remember now thy Creator ...” Here is a necessary imperative found to urge us to remember “NOW”, in the present, the personal creative handiwork of our God. Though this memory will be constantly threatened, here pleas the challenge to call to mind the personal intimate love entries of our Creator . “In the days of thy youth”... Just as a historian will be searching for the story behind antiquity, we need to be carrying His-Story daily into the events that make up our day. His-Story, openly remembered by us, will activate the discovery of the true eternal value of this moment for us and others. “NOW is the accepted time, TODAY is the day of the Savior's sufficiency … If you hear Jesus' loving voice, harden not your heart.”
Our greatest flaw, our greatest self-inflicted wound is our ability to turn days into years, and then turn the years into an ominous mile marker that disqualifies us from the daily youthful discovery of God's active love for us. Shame on the media mongers who deify “Youth”, and the maintaining of it as the only evidence of the blessed life. We can pump up, plump up, fix up, color up, cover up until the shell could stand and rot from within without anyone knowing. Or we can actively under-gird our eternal souls “daily” with continued love entries from His Word, combined with gratefully taking care of this temporal tent of sojourning. ...“While the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.” Eccl. 12:1.
Oh, may the image of us, behind the one-way glass of our darkest hours, be discovered praising God instead of accusing Him. May we be caught reveling in glorious memories of our God's love, instead of groveling in lonely disappointed bitterness. When all of our physical strength is truly gone, may we be left with a courageous memory, indelibly stamped by His-Story; so that when the evil days come, and the years draw nigh that we shall say then ...“I have my full pleasure in Him!”.
Remember – He bore the ultimate forsaking that we may have the ultimate cherishing.
HLFA,
Jeff