In Remeberance

When I was growing up, I remember the song "Tie a Yellow Ribbon", do you know that song? "Tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree, so you remember me....daa, da, daa.." I know the song had purpose but I can't remember what it was truly about, today we place yellow ribbons on cars, mailboxes, homes, trees, anywhere we can to remember that our military soldiers are away and fighting for freedom.

Or, have you ever tied a string around your finger to remember something important? I did that a couple times in my life, I can't say it ever worked but I did give it a good effort. But I would get through the day - at school, playing with my friends as a child, working a busy life as an adult - and all I would have is a string around my finger and no rememberance of why it was there. Have you ever had one of those days? My friends, by the way most of them much older than me, calls those moments "senior moments". Well if that's the case, I've been a senior all my life. My husband calls them "bright and flashy distractions". He believes that on some level I am distracted easily and can bounce, literally, from one subject to the next without a second thought as to the conversation at hand.

So why do we go through so much trouble trying to remember something so important? Where did this process come from? An old wives tale? A tradition from some far off land of imigrants? Where and why do we do this so often?

I'm studying anger management (here's one of those bright and flashy distractions) and in the book I am reading, the author refers to Cain and Abel. And that sparked my interest so I picked up my bible and began to read. I started in Genesis 3 after God "tossed" Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden and stopped in mid Genesis 9 after Noah, his family, and the animals left the Ark. In these chapters, only twice was anger mentioned, 1st when Cain was angered by Abel and God's approval of Abel, and 2nd when God decided to flood the earth killing everything He had created. But what I found interesting in the end was that God created something to remind him of his covenant or promise with Noah, his sons, and the animals of the earth. He created a rainbow and placed it in the horizon and said "I will establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you,"(Gen. 9:9). Ok first, I would have loved to hear God's voice say those words, a covenant with you and your descendants after you. Can you even imagine hearing those words come from the body of God? And He didn't stop there, in Gen. 9:12&13 "God said "this is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come. I have set my rainbow in the clouds and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and earth." and in Gen 9:16 God says "Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures on earth." Wow! Even God created something amazing to remember a promise He made thousands of years ago with a man and his family and all the animals of the earth.

In the new testament, Christ did the same for us, He gave us something to remember Him by and His covenant with us for forgiveness (now please note it does not say that in the bible but I think that this set of rememberance tools is exactly that). In Luke 22: 19-20 Jesus and his disciples were celebrating passover, the last meal that Jesus would have with his friends. And during that meal, "Jesus took the bread, gave thanks and gave it to them saying 'this is my body, given for you, do this in remembrance of me.' then he took the cup in the same way and said ' this cup is my new covenant in blood, which is poured out for you.'..." We call this communion, the taking of bread and wine (or juice) in rememberance of what Jesus did for us, His covenant or promise of life by the sacrafice of His blood. And we do this often in rememberance of what our life is now and where our life was once, a way to remember the promise the God made with us through His son Jesus.

So where did those old wives tales and traditions come from? I don't know exactly where those two particular traditions came from, but I know that they were probably established by God with Noah after the great flood. I know that thousands of years later, Jesus made a covenant with us and gave us a way to remember that covenant. Maybe God could have put a ribbon around a tree (the olive tree at that time) and maybe Jesus could have taken a small string from his robe and tied it around each of the disciples fingers at the table. But would I have remembered that as clearly as I see a rainbow in the sky? Would a string being tied around my finger make an impression of Jesus sacrafice and God's love? I would guess probably not. So what do I do to remember God every day? Not much really. I get up every morning rouse the kids, feed the dogs and horses, kiss my husband good-bye and somewhere in the middle I try to say good-morning to God. But I know that everyday, when I wake up with a song in my mind of His love, that He put it there to remind me that He is still around, still part of my life. I'm not a good rememberer, but God is and everyday I have peace because He remembers all He has spoken. All I have to do.......? Well, I'm not to sure, maybe a string around my finger isn't a bad idea after all.