Remembering the Cross

When I was a child, my well-intentioned mother attempted to shape my scatterbrained approach to life.  To her dismay, I was not exactly moldable.  If it rained, I left my umbrella at school.  I lost library books and misplaced numerous other items.  Each time, she would express her exasperation by saying how irresponsible I was!  But Mom was wrong.  At the core of this child was one who desperately wanted to remember.

Forgetting umbrellas and other articles may be inconvenient and frustrating but it will not affect my destiny.  Each week, I am charged with "remembering" as I partake of the Lord's Supper.  It can be a mechanical gesture or rich with intention.  It comes down to my desire.  The agony of the Cross and what it accomplished must never fade from my memory because remembering breeds thanksgiving.  And as author Ann Voskamp has noted, "thanksgiving prepares the way that God might show us His fullest Salvation."

John Newton, the Anglican clergy, former slave trader and well known hymn writer told a visitor a few weeks before he died, "My memory is nearly gone but I remember two things: that I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior.  Could it be that we have forgotten this?  Have we moved from the kingdom of death to the Kingdom of Light so casually that we have forgotten the dust at the foot of the Cross?

The prophet Jeremiah says that God "will forgive our wickedness and remember our sins no more" (Jeremiah 31:34)  He forgives much so that we can remember much.  And that may be the secret.  We dare not see our worth based upon anything other than His Grace and sacrifice.  And that is fertile ground for remembrance.