Memories

I picked up a book at the Cokesbury store at Wesley Theological Seminary. It's by someone who was a student at Duke Divinity School when Jeff and I were there. I thought, "Oh, I need to show Jeff what Paul is up to." Then I remembered that I can't do that anymore. No tears were in that particular moment of remembering. It was more a sense of loss of shared memory. 

There are moments that I think of things I would like to ask my parents about--stories that they told, places we visited together, occasions shared as a family. Those moments are also losses of shared memory.

I know that we cannot retain all the details of all our memories. That's why it is helpful to have community around us. Last Friday, I was able to spend a few hours with Susan. We had not been together really for over 30 years. As we walked around looking at art, we talked. Different memories emerged that I thought I had forgotten. It was fun to keep remembering things together, and make some new ones for now.

I visit Fran who is still so sweet but whose memory has faded so much. Her husband remembers, but she doesn't. In a way, that is so sad, but are we just the memories we've accumulated? If those memories are gone, then are we too gone?

I don't think so. As Jesus prepared to leave his disciples, he promised them that the Holy Spirit would come and remind them of all he had taught them. So this Holy Spirit-filled community, this Body of Christ remembers. And even when we all forget, God does not forget, for we are written upon the palm of God's hand.