Memories

Once upon a time, long, long ago, my older sister Judy and I hitch-hiked round Europe for three months. We were truly innocents abroad, and the good Lord had his watchful eye upon us because remarkably, apart from a couple of uncomfortable moments, we had no problems. 

We had a rough plan of where we were going and had made bookings in the youth hostels or YWCAs in the big cities, and our travelling ‘Bible’ was Frommer’s Europe on $5 a day. Incredibly, we often could survive on less than $5 a day. 

Our parents had instilled in us a fascination for Europe. Their favourite pages in the LA Sunday Times were in the travel section, and my mother often cut out and filed articles about places or hotels, for future use. They were the generation who survived the Great Depression in the US in the ‘30s, and the second world war, and finances had never stretched to enabling them to travel to Europe themselves.

So Judy and I felt like their eyes and ears, and often we would say things like, ‘Mom and Dad would love this’. When we returned to California, tired and ready to be taken care of for awhile, we developed our slides, put our souvenirs in scrapbooks and tried to share with Mom and Dad the joys of our trip. 

I still remember the feeling of quiet disappointment when I would see them glazing over as we reminisced, often in fits of laughter, about various episodes of the trip. I had thought they would be hanging on our every word, but having watched other people’s slide shows and heard their stories many times since, I now understand. Hearing about someone else’s experiences, however interested you are and however exciting they may be, is just not as enthralling as it is for those who were there.

One of the bereavements I’ve felt since Judy’s death is the loss of my travelling buddy, and the sadness of not being able to connect with her anymore in knowing looks and laughter as we might recall certain incidents of the trip.

God instructs us to remember the big events of our spiritual journeys. I’ve always thought of that as being important for us in our life of faith, so that when we are in tough times, perhaps, we buoy ourselves up with recollections of God’s constancy and faithfulness. 

But in a relationship, both parties take delight in recalling high points in their lives. Judy and I loved sharing our memories. Don and I frequently laugh over events during our lifetime together. The grown-up ‘kids’ enjoy trips down memory lane as we pull up shared experiences. 

And so with God. I no longer think he calls us to remember certain things just for our own good. I think he invites us to linger with him and laugh as we recall momentous events in our own spiritual journeys. My moment of being born-again in the Spirit wasn’t only a momentous event for me. God was there. He was laughing too. He loves to recall that moment as well. The angels in heaven were singing and maybe even dancing. 

He is my travelling buddy on my journey of faith, just as he is yours. He loves it when we remember with joy those close encounters we’ve had over the years. He’s there when we remember the dark times, the tricky bits when we’ve not felt his closeness, and he is always calling us, drawing us back. 

How great is that? Don’t you just love Him?

I