The Memorial of a Memory

The human brain is one of the most complex, the most incredible organisms known to the history of the Earth. At the literal snap of a finger, the brain has within its power the ability to compute many thousands of reactions to the sound in a single second! It regulates our bodies' internal organs, blood flow, and temperature on the subconscious level while being ready to deliver when things become more intense on the physical!

But, in my opinion, the greatest and one of the comparatively least complex abilities of the human brain is the power in a memory!

Isn't it amazing when the environment around us introduces (or reintroduces) something that it triggers an extraordinary counter response of memories!?! Ever smelled a smell and thought of Mom's home cooking? Ever heard a song and you are transported back to a place where you first heard the song? Ever saw a picture or picked up an object and the memories flood your mind so much that it can be seemingly overwhelming?? Or how about when we drive by an old place we used to visit as a child, and the memories of that place flood our minds so much that it seems almost like we are there again!? It almost makes you long for that feeling of yesterday! Thus, it is the power and memorial of a memory!

I must be getting old. Nostalgia grips my heart more and more now and I can recall so many things good and bad in my past like it happened yesterday! Every time, memories explode into my waking mind....

I smile...

or laugh...

or even shed a tear ...about what has happened in my life...and it sometimes makes me wish (OH, I WISH!) that I could go back again and relive it for so many reasons!

Maybe to just enjoy those incredibly funny times with childhood and teenage friends; to sit and talk to my deceased grandmother again and hear her talk about her life and her love for "professional" wrestling! (True, too true!) Or how about going back and righting the wrongs of a stubborn youth or correcting the attitude of myself as an early adult. Or simply just reliving a time when you laughed so hard with someone you cried because your belly hurt!

It is also here, however, that I remember with clarity lost opportunities, missed chances of friendship or a kind word, a handshake, a hug, a kiss, living in the moment with that special person, time, or place and long for it to come back.

Just one more time...

Alas, I cannot! A writer once wrote, "You can never go home again." I think I know what they meant. Again, there are memorials in our memories!

I was reading the Bible the other day and I saw what God told the Jewish people to do when they crossed over Jordan for the first time soon nearing the Promised Land.

(Joshua 4:1-7, KJV)

(1) And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the LORD spake unto Joshua, saying, (2) Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man, (3) And command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests' feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night. (4) Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man: (5) And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of Jordan, and take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel: (6) That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? (7) Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.

I want you to see the significance of what God was telling His people to do. The river Jordan, and this particular place in history was important because God was bringing His people to a land of promise and the Jordan river was one of the last hurdles before crossing over! So when God was telling Joshua to bring up the stones from out of the midst of the riverbed, He was effecting in them a change from the past to the present with a look towards the future! The stones would be a memorial for generations to come! In essence, how I interpret this is that God brought them through and whenever they thought about quitting or giving up or even going back to their bondage...the memorial would remind them that God was their God!

A memorial is something that preserves a "remembrance." I might add that it is an object or marker for a boundary of land. In other words, something that divides and separates! I believe that God wanted the memorial to be put up because it marked a turning point in their stages of life. Furthermore, it marked leaving the bondage of the past, to the future of serving Jehovah God! How about that...leaving a bad memory behind to no more bother us? Pretty novel idea that God had , huh?

I'm sure those people didn't fully understand the reasons for the stones as a memorial then, but over the course of time, they would see it was more than JUST a bunch of piled up rocks! But in reality, it was a sign to never go back where they came from! They could not understand it then, but eventually, through the years, they could go back and explain to their children the memorial of a memory was and is a landmark of salvation!

My friend, let me remind you something! Although your memories may define your thinking and environment today, they do not define you! I love that God builds little markers or memorials at the former places of my trials and tribulations so that I can go back and view them to remind myself of God's saving, amazing grace in my life!