Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this. – Deuteronomy 24:22

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 23, 2012): Deuteronomy 24

Sometimes I wonder how much we remember about the earlier stages of our lives. The question arises every time I watch an older person get cross with a child for the energy that they seem to need get rid of, or questions about why a youth would respond in a certain way in certain situations. I know that once they shared the same age, but they sometimes seem to have forgotten what it was like to be that age.

The same question arises sometimes as I watch a mature Christian interact with someone who is young in the faith. It is like they have no memory of what it is that the other is going through as they make their first steps of faith. They also seem to have no memory of what it was like before they became Christians. A while ago I had a bit of an epiphany. Is it possible that they actually have no memory of the event? For some of them, it has simply been a long time since they had had some sort of conversion experience. Some have worked hard to forget that the before ever really happened. What came before was scary and uncomfortable; it was not something to remember, but rather something that needs to be forgotten.

And some simply had never had a before experience. I remember looking at an old picture of a church that had formed in 1916. It was taken on the day of the first church service and it was just the picture of a group of people with some children down in front. Then someone who was watching me leaned over and pointed at the small child standing just to the right of the group in the picture. And as he pointed he said “that is (and he mentioned the name of a Saint in the church.)” She never left. At the time the church had been in existence for ninety years, and she had been a part of the community from the very beginning. I am sure that there was a conversion moment, but she was one of the lucky ones that had never known a life before that was much different from the Christian home that she had grown up in. For her, there was nothing before to really remember. (And to be totally honest, even though she had no memory, she was one of the most compassionate people in the church when she connected with those new to the faith.)

Moses asks the people to remember that they were slaves in Egypt. But the truth was that there were very few people that had any memory of Egypt. And all of those that remembered a life of slavery, with the exception of Moses, Joshua and Caleb, were children when they left. And yet, Moses needed them to remember Egypt so that they could make sense of the Promised Land.

I am convinced that God needs us to remember our own personal Egypts. Because that is the only way we can make sense of our own future in him.     

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 25