Days of Remembrance

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,

Last we forget - lest we forget!

~from “Recessional” by Rudyard Kipling

Just the other night, our family gathered and opened up one of our photo books. This was part of our way to remember where we were three years ago - on a very special trip. As we studied the photos, read the notes, laughed over funny memories and sighed  with wistful thoughts, we remembered all that the Lord taught us back then and had the opportunity to realize how what He did then has impacted our lives ever since. Those moments of reflection gave us new hope for the future.

That is the point of “days of remembrance”: taking the time to look back at what the Lord has done so that we can understand better what He is doing and trust Him with what He will do. Sometimes days of remembrance are simple family moments like us looking through our photo book. Sometimes they are grand celebrations. Let’s take a look at some of them.

SIMPLE GATHERINGS

So often in life it is really the simple moments that change the course of our lives. For our family, many of our days of remembrance are inspired by our travels. “Remember where we were three years ago today? Let’s do such and such in honor of the day!” “Can you believe it has been nine years since we moved back from Guatemala? Let’s celebrate by...” 

New Year’s Eve is also a lovely time to declare as a day of remembrance. Over the past several New Year’s Eves, we have tried to carve out at least a bit of time to sit down with pens and paper (and often a yummy snack) and go through the year. “Do you remember what happened in April?” “Wasn’t it amazing how such and such happened?” “Remember how we didn’t know if we would make it through such and such? God was so faithful!” “What was your favorite part of the year?” “What lessons did we learn?” “I hope we never do X again!” All of those questions and thoughts help us to remember, to catch at least glimpses of God’s hand and to have a better idea of where we are heading in the coming year.

INDIVIDUAL PROVIDENCES

Another great time for days of remembrance is birthdays. A birthday can be a day of telling stories of God’s providence in our lives, of remembering what He has brought us through, of delighting in His care and creativity in crafting each individual life. But for the grace of God, none of us would even be breathing much less all the other things we are blessed to enjoy and do.

One of our favorite birthday memories is of Grandpa Hammer’s 93rd birthday. The two of us girls planned a little WWII-style musical show for him as a surprise and practiced for weeks in advance. When the day came, we dressed up in WWII/50s styles dresses (actually some dresses of our mother’s from years ago!) and went to the nursing home where Grandpa was. Our program included patriotic numbers, WWII favorites, cherished hymns and beloved ballads since we had tried to fit in Grandpa’s favorites. Thanks to the other residents who joined in, it ended up being quite the little event - not only a celebration of Grandpa but also a time to remember the WWII era that had such an impact on his life.

HISTORIC EVENTS

In our experience, celebrations of historic events have been rather grand affairs, but they don’t have to be. For example, on April 18th, we - especially I (Kristen) - like to read “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Longfellow and remember the providences of God that led to America’s liberty. 

Listen my children and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five...

As we remember America’s War for Independence, we are reminded that God works through dedicated minorities, that He “directs the affairs of men” and that Liberty before God is a priceless treasure. 

To continue along the same line and yet give you an entirely different example, on March 23rd - the 238th anniversary of Patrick Henry’s famous speech - we celebrated (partly by “accident”) by taking a self-defense class. We think Mr. Henry would have approved, don’t you?

For most Americans, October 31st is considered Halloween. For our family, it is Reformation Day, the anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Wittenberg chapel on October 31, 1517. A couple of years in a row, we got to celebrate this day with hundreds of others as part of a three-day event full of godly speakers, sweet fellowship, toe-tapping music, historic crafts, and, since there was a significant Scottish influence in the Reformation, our own version of the Highland Games complete with a caber toss! Oh, yes, most of the attendees wore costumes, too!

Another favorite day of remembrance was the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. Again, hundreds attended with us. One of the elements of the event that added so much was a children’s play. Even very young children were able to memorize two or three lines, don a costume and act a bit to portray men and women connected with Titanic’s story and in so doing to praise the Lord. Even as we think of it now, the scenes bring to mind the verse of Matthew 21, “Yes; have you never read, “‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?”  Of course, you’ve already heard about the Titanic Ladies’ Tea.

By now, we hope it’s evident that these days of remembrance can come in all shapes and sizes. Perhaps your family has your own historic events you want to commemorate. Maybe you have special family birthday traditions. Quite possibly your moments to remember are when you climbed that mountain and gloried in the beauty of God’s creation or when you met someone who the Lord used to change your life. The key principle is to rejoice before the Lord in what He has done and to use that knowledge to serve Him better now and to look with hope into the future because we have seen with our eyes and heard with our ears how faithful He has been.