We Remember

We remember.

We NEED to remember.

9- 11 -2001 – We have vowed to never forget.

12- 7 -1941 –  Pearl Harbor Invasion – World War II followed.

10- 24-29 -1929  – The “black” days preceding  the USA’s Great Depression.

There are other dark days we need to remember as well. They have significance in our country’s development. Though dark, they are defining moments.

Some who were close will remember details and feelings will return.
The closer it is to you, the more you will remember and feel.  That’s true of all dark days.

I have some days I consider dark days; defining moments in my own history.

• The day I opened my 7th grade report card and saw a big fat F staring up at me in Advanced Math.  I turned a corner that day.
• The day after Thanksgiving 1979.  An auto accident 600 miles from home, and an air-ambulance ride for my wife so they could care for her multiple injures close to home.
• November 6, 1986.  The day I heard “The project you’ve moved your family to Arizona to take on has not been approved, and will not be funded.”
• A February 9th and a July 8th – days I heard “It’s cancer. And it’s inoperable.  We’re sorry.”   My father and father-in-law are now in glory.
• A Friday night in 2004.  My world self-imploded and I had to decide:  Do I quit? or do I call on God’s grace and mercy to rebuild?
• Wednesday, June 25th, 2008.  “We can’t afford to keep you.  I’m sorry, but — you’re done.”  Life changing words.

Today we remember a dark day – literally – with global and timeless significance.

• The very people Jesus came to save turned on him.
• One of his closest sold his loyalty to others.
• Another denied knowing or even meeting him.
• He shouldered the sins of the world —past, present and future— and died for us.
• Even God the Father had to turn away.
• From noon until three o’clock that afternoon it was pitch black.
• For our Savior, three days and nights in the darkness of a sealed tomb followed.

God’s redemptive plan mandated this dark day.  Jesus asked at Gethsemane that he not have to go through with it but ended his prayer “Yet I want your will — not mine.”  (Matt. 26.39)

Jesus had taught his disciples the principle: in order to bear fruit you must die.  We die to live.  It’s true of wheat, it’s true of us. (John 12.24)

Today we remember with a measure of solemnity our Savior’s death on the cross of Calvary.  He died so He – and we – could live.  So we could have life – abundantly. (John 10.10)

Today is a dark day we should remember.  We must. It’s part of God’s plan to make things right again, to mend the torn relationship between Creator and created.

Worship Him today – reflecting and remembering.
Worship Him Sunday – alive and victorious.

Today must come before Sunday.
And we remember.