By
Pastor Greg
A mother was walking with her four-year-old
daughter one day when the little girl
picked up something from the ground and started to put it in her mouth. Of course, the mother told her not to do
that. “Why?” asked the little girl. “Because it’s dirty and probably covered with
germs,” said the mother. The little girl looked at her mother in
amazement. “Wow! How do you know all this stuff?” Thinking quickly, the mother responded, “All mothers know this stuff. It’s on the Mommy Test. You have to know it, or they don’t let you become a Mommy.” Mother and daughter walked along in silence
for a few minutes while the little girl pondered this new information. After a while,
she exclaimed, “Oh I get it now. Then if
you flunk, you have to be the daddy!”
Oh ha, ha, ha.
Very Funny. Just
what I needed. Another joke that makes
father’s look stupid. Like we need any
more help.
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Greg, Heather, and Andrea. Moulton, Iowa, 2004
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I do the same thing with my father. Sure, there were times when he made me angry,
but then there are the fond memories.
For example, every time I hear the word Bar Mitzvah, I think of my
father. My family was attending a
wedding in New Jersey for my cousin. The
reception was held at a multi-venue banquet facility. Part way through the reception, we couldn’t
find dad. We thought he went out to the
bathroom. Only later did we learn that
my father walked into a Bar Mitzvah celebration just down the hall. My dad crashed the party. Picked up a Yarmulke at the door and went
in. I love my Dad. I’ve filed that memory away under “Things I
need to try someday when my family’s not around”.
I
know there are things about your father that have bothered you for years. We all have them because our fathers are indeed human. They are going to make mistakes. However, I think there are probably some fond
memories as well – things that make you
smile. I mean, after all, there are good
memories as well as the bad.
Making
memories. All of us are in the process
of making memories. Either we give
memories to others, or we are forming memories from others. A Father is either giving his children memories, or he is receiving memories from his children.
It would be wrong to assume that all memories are bad.
I
think the same thing can be said about God.
What I mean is that God does not just remember all the things we have
done wrong. Our heavenly Father also remembers what we have done right or when we
have pleased Him in some way. I know we
tend to believe that God is keeping a record of all our offenses. Somehow we’ve been taught that every time we
do something wrong, a note is placed in a permanent file in Heaven. We learned at a young age to be careful
little hands what we do, be careful little feet where we go, and be careful little tongue what we say because the Father
up above is looking down in love. And we
have visions of God opening page number 3,279 and recording yet another time
when we did not live up to His expectations.
But it has occurred to me that if we have called Jesus our Lord and
Savior, God is receiving good memories from us.
He is actually keeping a “Book of Remembrance” of those who bring Him
joy.
In
the book of Malachi, there is a short and seldom mentioned reference to a “Book
of Remembrance.” In it were recorded the good things that a
group of Jews had done because they
honored God and were obedient to His word. Malachi 3:16-18 says, 16 At that time those
who feared the Lord spoke to one another. The Lord took notice and listened. So
a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who feared Yahweh and
had high regard for His name. 17 “They will be Mine,” says the
Lord of Hosts, “a special possession on the day I am preparing. I will have
compassion on them as a man has compassion on his son who serves him. 18 So you will again see the
difference between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and
one who does not serve Him. [1]
I
wonder if God is still keeping track of what we've been doing right? We spend our day’s laboring for Christ and
then have the audacity to think God doesn’t notice? Do you really believe
He doesn't see the times that you pray for others, or when you reach out
to people who have been cast aside by society?
Do you think God is blind to the sacrifices we’ve made for Him and His Church? Don’t you think He knows when we swallow
angry words and respond in love? Doesn’t
God know when someone experiences grace, mercy, and love because you introduced
them to Jesus? Have you ever thought
that God is keeping a scrapbook of your
life? As hard as it may be for you to
imagine, God might just be sitting in heaven right now with a scrapbook of your
life lying open in His lap. Calling the
angels near, He shows them about the time you chose Him over Satan. Or the time you sent an encouraging card to
someone who was suffering. He shows them
the meal you took over to the young couple that just had a baby. Your Father in Heaven is watching you, and He
is adding new pages to your Book of Remembrance day by day.
It’s human nature to only remember the
bad. We tend to dwell on this. We are consumed by the knowledge that
someone, somewhere, only remembers the times we’ve messed up. However, I have found incredible joy with the
thought that God has been keeping track of the times I’ve done what is
right. Like a proud parent, He’s gluing
stories and pasting pictures in a scrapbook of my life (on fireproof paper, of course). It warms my heart to think that in heaven there is another “Permanent Record,” filled with times I’ve made God proud.
Fathers,
your children do remember the good times.
And so too does your Father in Heaven.
Instead of beating yourself up once again for all the things you’ve done
wrong, this Father’s Day please know that God sees the things you do that are
good and right and worthy of praise. I
would encourage you to spend the day thinking about what things might be in
your “Book of Remembrance.”
[1] The Holy Bible: Holman Christian standard
version. 2009 (Mal 3:16–18). Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers.
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