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As we move into autumn so we approach the season of remembering. Remembering the fallen of past conflicts; remembering those whose “finest hour” was during the Battle of Britain seventy years ago and remembering those who live daily with the terrible legacy of war. And it is appropriate also at this time of year to remember the departed of our own families whether recently or in the distant past. Yet it’s not everyone who wants to remember some would rather forget a past that has so blighted their lives with memories too painful to recall. There are those also who due to age or infirmity are physically incapable of remembering whether they want to or not. Some people are condemned to live in the present-moment due to dementia or advancing age not even being able to recognise loved-ones (let alone remember them) from one minute to the next. Watching a loved-one disappear before your eyes is as distressing as it is pitiful. So much of the human brain is understood yet so much more lies beyond understanding.
And as I write who could forget the plight of 33 brave miners cut off from their loved-ones half a mile beneath the soil of Chile waiting in darkness for daylight to shine upon them once again. Above, families wait anxiously as rescuers drill down painfully slowly while the rest of the world looks on in hope. Let us remember also the people of Pakistan far removed from us geographically yet close at hand in the memory of countless people right around the world. It is so easy to forget once the watching-gaze of the media has shifted elsewhere. Yet for many in that stricken land life will never be the same again.
None of us know what the future holds or how we will react to events which come our way. But one thing we can be confident of is God’s knowledge of us. God doesn’t have a problem with memory loss. We may have the misfortune one day to forget who we are but God will never forget us. God’s nature is unfathomable; he is everything that we are not. And that is such a relief. I can’t even remember to set the TV timer even when the programme I want to record is one I don’t want to miss! Nothing, says Paul, can separate us from the love of God and that includes a defective memory. Paul doesn’t say that trouble, hardship, persecution and famine won’t come our way it may well (especially in our increasingly secular society). What he does say, however, is that when these things strike God’s commitment to us will not falter. God is consistent; God doesn’t change his mind or act arbitrarily. God is light in him there are no shadows or dark places. So when our world falls apart for whatever reason God is at hand (we are locked securely into his memory). And in that nothing” that Paul speaks of we might therefore include: memory-loss, being shut-away down a mine; the sudden loss of a loved-one through ill health or when the bugle has sounded summoning them into battle.
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