Remember

      When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua,  “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”

                So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

                                                                               Joshua 4:1-7

      As families gathered yesterday to exchange gifts and feast, you can be sure there were some stories that began "Remember when...?" The word "remember" is used 125 times in the Old Testament. God not only told His people to remember, He gave them memory aids like rainbows, sacrifices, circumcision, and piles of stones. He also told them to write things down and tell their children. In the New Testament, we are told 40 more times to "remember." Both Judaism and Christianity base their celebrations and feasts on remembering.

      Even  our traditions are a form of remembering though actions. Sometimes, the remembering gets lost. A story is told of a man who asked his wife why she cut the ends of a ham before putting it in the oven. "I don't know," she replied. "That's how Mom always did it."

      At the next family gathering, he asked his mother-in-law. "I don't know," she admitted. "That's just how Mom always did it."

      Husband, wife and mother-in-law all turned to the matriarch who thought for a moment then looked at her husband and smiled at the memory. "Well, when we first got married, we only had a tiny pan. We had to cut the ends off to make it fit."

      In our fast paced world, we don't often take time to remember or to share those memories. These last few days of the year are a time to contemplate and celebrate what has been, and to consider what is go to come. What has happened during the past year? What were the big events? What can you celebrate? What do you need to mourn? Take some time to remember the year, to review journals or social media and make a list of positives and negatives for the year (3-5 of each as a minimum.) Pick at least one positive and find a way to celebrate it. Pick at least one negative to release.

      Here are a couple ways you might celebrate and release. Have the head of the household light a candle while sharing a positive, then use that candle to light the next person's candle, passing the flame around the table until everyone has shared. You could also write the positives on pieces of paper and put them on a bulletin board. With enough advance notice, each person could bring an object representing a positive to decorate the dinner table, coffee table or entertainment center. Take pictures of each person holding his/her chosen object and all of the objects together to share among the group or on social media. The negatives could also be written on pieces of paper, which could be burned in the light of the candles. Another idea is to shred the negatives and then bury in the garden or out in the woods. That brings a small positive result from the negative event: food for plants. Pray over the celebration, and pray over the release, thanking God for all and asking Him to turn these positives and negatives into blessings.

 

(Please note that the releasing ceremony, however performed, may not result in the release of that negative. It may do nothing more than signal your willingness (not your ability) to let that thing go. It may be a tiny step in a process that will continue for however long it takes.)


         For my part, more positives have come to mind than I expected and not as many negatives. For the top three positives: Grace came into my life in January; I left my job in September, moved south for the winter and began trying to build a life and career; and I have started a habit of intercession. For the negatives: an important relationship ended last winter (with fault on both sides); my brother died in June thereby complicating life for me; I left the security of my job in September and moved south for the winter.