Five Minute Friday :: Forget

Isaiah 43:18-19
Remember not the former things
nor consider the things of old.
behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?

• Five Minute Friday :: Forget linkup

• Remember the way the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness…Therefore keep the commandments of the Lord your God. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey.

Deuteronomy 8:2, 6-8

• Remember not the former things
nor consider the things of old.
behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?

Isaiah 43:18-19

Don't remember? But that means to forget! And why? Because I am doing a new thing; I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19

"Remember" is God's covenantal word. Next door neighbor Sara in Previous City (we've both moved house a few times since then) said the gospel in one word is remember. "Re-member" is the sacramental word. In the same way Israel reveled in the agricultural gifts of the promised land and offered thanks to the Giver, we assemble together, gather in creation's bounty, give thanks…

In these crazy times – as always – God remembers how quickly we forget.

Overcome by disappointment, broken dreams, COVID fallout, I keep trying to remember.

I keep trying to forget. Because the memories hurt too much.

But God's "remember not" (because at this particular time you need to forget) via Isaiah is something else altogether! We study scripture, and by the time we've made a few trips around the sun we've actually learned something about human propensities and about God's everlasting faithfulness along with the wisdom of recalling both of those on a regular basis. You remember how human forgetfulness tends to lead us into despair, makes us forget to hope?

How ironic is it that when we *think* we know death is not God's final answer, resurrection to new life out of the impossible always surprises us?

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