Time Also Forgets
"Time heals all things," they say, but that isn't all it does. Time also makes us forget.
Time is like a huge rope floating in a vast ocean. It floats completely below the surface, but far from the bottom (if there is one). The water is God, saturating, supporting, surrounding. He holds and infuses it all from beginning to end. Our lives, however, run like fibers along the strands of the rope Time, twisting and turning, moving around each other, sometimes strong, sometimes frayed, sometimes broken.
As we move along our strand of the rope Time, we go through comfortable and hard times. We don't see the hard times coming, and we're quick to forget the hard times we cause others after they are gone. We may feel guilty for a while. We may feel like we should connect with them again and appologize, or at least confess to the whole or to the water the injury we have done to another on their journey. But, after a while that portion of our strand falls further behind as we journey and we feel less intensely the need for reconciliation. It was, after all, so long ago. We begin to act as though our crime had not been so serious, or as if it hadn't been as bad as it had seemed after all.
"Time heals all things," they say, but that isn't all it does. Time also makes us forget.
God however, is not as we are. God is not limited to the rope. He soaks through it, fills the spaces between its cords, upholds it, and engages it. But, God is not limited by it. Nor does God experience the rope Time moment by moent only. Rather, it is all and always moment by moment to Him. Every point along its surface is NOW to God. So, God does not forget. God sees it all. He knows it all as NOW.
The result for us, is that sometimes God reminds us of old things in order for us to do something about them. He reminds us of what we have forgotten. Sometimes these memories are good, but often they are unresolved injuries. It may have been years, but that moment when you stole is still NOW to God. Perhaps you were only a teenager, but that moment of fornication is still NOW to God. The time you hurt your friend, or lied, or swore an oath, or broke your promise, or hit that man, or snubbed that woman, or shirked on that responsibility... all of those moments are still NOW to God. They are as real as your church attendance, your tithes, and your moments of doing right. They are as real as whatever you are doing right NOW. Time, for the Lord, is irrelevant.
Yet, for believers, God sees those NOWs through a filter. It isn't the filter of Time, but rather it is the filter of the blood of Jesus. He is like the colonial boy who stood watching the British Army through the ancient glass window of his father's shop as they marched through the captured city. Though the soldiers wore red coats, the nature of the red colored imperfection of the window washed out all the red from his sight, making it a brilliant white instead. To him, the coats were white and the soldiers looked like fighting angels rather than enemies. So too does the blood of Jesus wash away our guilt in the eyes of God. "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
But, there is still some purpose when God shows us our sins that we have forgotten over the course of time. Though we are no longer condemned, we were guilty, and to avoid arrogance, we need to remember it. I not saying we should celebrate it, or repeat it, or even talk to anyone about it (you decide). Perhaps it still needs to be confessed to God? Perhaps it is just a reminder that the Grace we needed then is still needed now. I'm simply saying, we should remember the muck and mire we were saved from so that we do not forget that God is the one who supports it all, fills it all, and redeems it all. Time does not remove us from our need for God's grace.
Sometimes I see this happen. A man who was once a gambler now judges those who gamble. A former philanderer now looks down on those who engage in his old sin. An ex-smoker sneers at the clerk who tries to sell him a pack of cigarettes. A woman who happens not to be speeding today gets angry at others who don't know how to "drive responsibly". How quickly we forget to remain humble. How quickly we forget that God sees all our lives as NOW and loves us despite them. How quickly we turn from Grace to Arrogance.
We are sinners just like they are. Our particulars may be different, surely they are, but our NOW guiilt is the same. If it weren't for Jesus, I'd still be condemed for the sins of my childhood, much more the sins of the years which followed. Except for Jesus, I'm just like the people I could so easily belittle. And, if the only real difference is Jesus, I have no room in it for pride. Rather, I have a perfect opportunity for praise and humility.
And so, as I move along my fiber of the rope, I am sometimes reminded of the past (and even given glimpses of the future), so that I can understand how God sees it all NOW, and offer Him the humble praise of one whose red coat (whose very flesh) has been washed as white as snow by the blood of Jesus.
Time is like a huge rope floating in a vast ocean. It floats completely below the surface, but far from the bottom (if there is one). The water is God, saturating, supporting, surrounding. He holds and infuses it all from beginning to end. Our lives, however, run like fibers along the strands of the rope Time, twisting and turning, moving around each other, sometimes strong, sometimes frayed, sometimes broken.
As we move along our strand of the rope Time, we go through comfortable and hard times. We don't see the hard times coming, and we're quick to forget the hard times we cause others after they are gone. We may feel guilty for a while. We may feel like we should connect with them again and appologize, or at least confess to the whole or to the water the injury we have done to another on their journey. But, after a while that portion of our strand falls further behind as we journey and we feel less intensely the need for reconciliation. It was, after all, so long ago. We begin to act as though our crime had not been so serious, or as if it hadn't been as bad as it had seemed after all.
"Time heals all things," they say, but that isn't all it does. Time also makes us forget.
God however, is not as we are. God is not limited to the rope. He soaks through it, fills the spaces between its cords, upholds it, and engages it. But, God is not limited by it. Nor does God experience the rope Time moment by moent only. Rather, it is all and always moment by moment to Him. Every point along its surface is NOW to God. So, God does not forget. God sees it all. He knows it all as NOW.
The result for us, is that sometimes God reminds us of old things in order for us to do something about them. He reminds us of what we have forgotten. Sometimes these memories are good, but often they are unresolved injuries. It may have been years, but that moment when you stole is still NOW to God. Perhaps you were only a teenager, but that moment of fornication is still NOW to God. The time you hurt your friend, or lied, or swore an oath, or broke your promise, or hit that man, or snubbed that woman, or shirked on that responsibility... all of those moments are still NOW to God. They are as real as your church attendance, your tithes, and your moments of doing right. They are as real as whatever you are doing right NOW. Time, for the Lord, is irrelevant.
Yet, for believers, God sees those NOWs through a filter. It isn't the filter of Time, but rather it is the filter of the blood of Jesus. He is like the colonial boy who stood watching the British Army through the ancient glass window of his father's shop as they marched through the captured city. Though the soldiers wore red coats, the nature of the red colored imperfection of the window washed out all the red from his sight, making it a brilliant white instead. To him, the coats were white and the soldiers looked like fighting angels rather than enemies. So too does the blood of Jesus wash away our guilt in the eyes of God. "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
But, there is still some purpose when God shows us our sins that we have forgotten over the course of time. Though we are no longer condemned, we were guilty, and to avoid arrogance, we need to remember it. I not saying we should celebrate it, or repeat it, or even talk to anyone about it (you decide). Perhaps it still needs to be confessed to God? Perhaps it is just a reminder that the Grace we needed then is still needed now. I'm simply saying, we should remember the muck and mire we were saved from so that we do not forget that God is the one who supports it all, fills it all, and redeems it all. Time does not remove us from our need for God's grace.
Sometimes I see this happen. A man who was once a gambler now judges those who gamble. A former philanderer now looks down on those who engage in his old sin. An ex-smoker sneers at the clerk who tries to sell him a pack of cigarettes. A woman who happens not to be speeding today gets angry at others who don't know how to "drive responsibly". How quickly we forget to remain humble. How quickly we forget that God sees all our lives as NOW and loves us despite them. How quickly we turn from Grace to Arrogance.
We are sinners just like they are. Our particulars may be different, surely they are, but our NOW guiilt is the same. If it weren't for Jesus, I'd still be condemed for the sins of my childhood, much more the sins of the years which followed. Except for Jesus, I'm just like the people I could so easily belittle. And, if the only real difference is Jesus, I have no room in it for pride. Rather, I have a perfect opportunity for praise and humility.
And so, as I move along my fiber of the rope, I am sometimes reminded of the past (and even given glimpses of the future), so that I can understand how God sees it all NOW, and offer Him the humble praise of one whose red coat (whose very flesh) has been washed as white as snow by the blood of Jesus.
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