Can God forget things?
They say that the second things to go with Old age is memory...and I can't remember the first. I don't know if you have problems forgetting things or not. It seems these days that I leave the house and average of three times before I actually leave. You know you keep coming back in because you forgot this thing of that thing and you really needed to bring the other thing for that thing you need to do at that one place. I first purchased a palm pilot because I was starting to forget meetings. I could still remember the phone numbers of childhood friends, but I couldn't remember the plan for the week. I just wouldn't show up and some one would call and ask me where I was. It was embarrassing because I wanted to be a person that people could trust to come through for them and I would just forget. I wanted to be able to keep my commitments.
Remembering things seems to have a lot to do with action. Not so much the memorizing of algebra formulas or facts from trivial pursuit, but remembering to show up for meetings, to take action on your commitments, even remembering peoples names. You remember a name so that you can greet that person and they will feel cared about, significant to you, the will feel remembered.
In Gen 9 God says he will put his rainbow in the sky so that he will remember his promise not to wipe the world out with another flood. He makes a covenant a promise to Noah, to all the people on the planet, and to every living creature that he won't ever wipe them all out with water ever again. And then he puts the rainbow in the sky to remind himself? Doesn't that seem strange that God needs to remember not to destroy all living creatures. Will he just forget one day, "Oops, I just accidentally opened the flood gate. Sorry guys - won't let it happen again."
When God calls for remembrance in scripture he is calling for action. He asks Israel to remember the covenant that has been made, to keep the commands that he has given them. Even the sabbath which he creates as a memorial of creation requires the action of intentionally setting aside our work and activity to rest and spend time with Him. This is why in Exodus 20 he asks the people of Israel to remember the sabbath. They have been enslaved for years in Egypt and haven't been taking the action to stop and rest on the sabbath.
God places the rainbow in the sky, this is an action that he does so that he will keep this covenant with man. This brings my mind back to Genesis chap 5 when he almost decides to stop contending with the heart of man and just give up on us, destroying us forever. But he sees Noah and decides to let his love come through to continue to contend with humanity. He makes the promise here to continue to contend with us. He will continue to win our hearts. He will not give up on me or you.
So when you see a rainbow in the sky remember that God has not given up on you and maybe we don't need to give up on him either.
No comments:
Post a Comment