dar334

Hang on to your hats ladies and gentleman, this may be quite a ride before arriving at our Biblical Base.

Just today I thought about the phrase “He has a memory like an elephant” and wondered if there were any truth to the saying so off to google I went.  Courtesy of the world wide web I found that elephants can live up to 60 years, they grieve over bodies of dead herd members and can even recognize their reflection in a mirror.  The elephants memory is key to it’s survival and the survival of it’s herd.  Each herd has a matriarchal structure, with one older female in charge.  The article goes on to say that elephants can recognize up to 30 of it’s herd members and can even remember them by the scent of their urine.  With that being said, I will end my research on elephants with the fact that the key to their memory comes with age and experience.  Not so different than us, except for the urine thing.

I’m often amazed at the memory some people have, and the lack thereof.  When it comes to my job, it’s my boss that has the memory.  God was generous when he handed out the amount of space and ability to retain in B1’s mind.  (B1 = Boss #1)  He can rattle off the store numbers and cross streets of a countless number of gas station locations without blinking an eye.  He can tell me where he purchased something in 2006, what station it was installed at, and how much it cost.  I, on the other hand, have what I refer to as “Selective Retainage”.  For example:  B1 will walk into my office and ask me to check on two things.  My first reaction is to grab a sticky note as I will definitely need to write both things down.  Before I get the first thing written, I’ve forgotten the second thing.  On the other hand, I was a freshman the 1969-1970 school year, and my locker combination was 33-0-17.  I can remember our phone number from my childhood, but I can’t tell you my husband’s cell phone number.  Don’t even get me started on passwords!

As I was pondering memory in the Biblical sense, my first thought was the countless times the Israelites failed to remember God’s covenant or His commands.  Shortly after Moses was out of site, they began worshiping an idol made from the melted down jewelry they took from the Egyptians when they escaped.  I shouldn’t have been surprised by how many verses about memory there are in the Bible when I googled it.  I chose the first on a list to share, it comes from Isaiah 65:17 – “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind.”  Isaiah was a prophet, he spoke to the people for God about His commands and promises.  In this verse Isaiah is telling the people about the new heaven and new earth.  We can find peace in knowing our short comings will not be remembered in heaven.  Now if only we could forget the shortcomings we remember here on earth, the ones that should be deleted from our hard drive, the ones that caused hurt and pain.  Yet like the elephant, we learn by age and experience, hopefully to elude any painful re-occurrence the next time it comes at us.  We are able to forgive, but we aren’t able to forget.  God has the ultimate delete button, and when we get to heaven He will erase the painful memories from our hard drive.  He promised us that.

Perhaps next I will ponder “She eats like a bird”.

-dar