Remembering

 

 
Someone once quipped concerning putting on some years: “As I get older, everything but my forgetter is losing strength. But, my forgetter is working just fine.”
 
There are many things that change as we get older. For many of us, we find that we have succumbed to the “chest of drawers” disease. That is a malady in which our middle drawer is sticking out. For others, much of our exercise routine has devolved into short walks from one room to another and back because we have forgotten why we wanted to visit another part of the house in the first place. I heard someone recently offer the possibility of a conspiracy theory about that very thing. Their suggestion was that we have been invaded by aliens who have installed invisible force fields around the doors in our homes which have the power to erase someone’s memory.
 
I suppose we aren’t in such bad company because it seems that Jesus’ disciples had problems with their forgetters overpowering their rememberers.
 
In Matthew 15.32-39 we read the story of Jesus’ feeding of the four thousand. Matthew is careful to mention that the four thousand did not include women and children. So, conservatively speaking, there could have been as many as ten or twelve thousand total – not including Jesus and the twelve. After hearing the complaint of no food from His disciples, without skipping a beat, Jesus asked this faithless band, “How many loaves have ye?” (Matthew 15.34) When the disciples replied, “Seven, and a few little fishes,” (Matthew 15.34) Jesus “… commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.” (Matthew 15.35) He then proceeded to feed the multitude. Following the “all-you-could-eat” buffet, seven baskets* were filled with the left-overs. These baskets were large enough to hold a full-size man.
 
The next day, after having crossed the Sea of Galilee they came to the coasts of Magdala. One of the things that occupied their minds was that their faithful forgetter had forgotten to bring any food. Out of the seven leftover baskets, they had not provided for themselves. As Jesus was using an illustration of food to teach His disciples about the subtle infusion of the error of the Pharisees into the purity of truth, He rather off-handedly mentioned to them a warning. With morning well at hand and hunger gnawing at their innards, their circumstances spoke so loudly that they forgot the miracle of the previous day. (Matthew 16.5-12)
 
Sometimes I become discouraged because my forgetter is working overtime. I suppose we are all there from time-to-time. It is way too easy to be overcome with the hunger pangs of the moment while moving from room-to-room in our journey of faith and forget why it was we went into the room. It would behoove us to stop periodically and turn our rememberer on high and consider God’s past provision and know that He is the God who controls our future.
 
* σπυρίς, spurís; gen. spurídos – A basket for storing grain or provisions. This is the same word used in Acts 9.25 of the basket used in which to let down Paul over the city wall in his great escape from Damascus.

 

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