My Soul Remember This!

Every year the memory comes and takes her by the hand and leads her to a place she doesn't want to go. It's not a course she would choose yet she feels obliged to follow the well worn path on which grief leads her. Familiar sorrows and old wounds bring fresh tears. The memories of regret seem to eclipse the happy times and she wonders again, "Can I ever escape this darkness?"

For seventy years they had marked the day the temple was destroyed, they had also marked the day of their last act of rebellion that sent them into captivity. For seventy years they had wept and fasted on these anniversaries of grief. They would not forget their failure, they would not forget their grief and what they had lost. They would remember and keep the wound from healing and keep the pain alive. Yet after seventy years they finally asked the Lord of hosts if this weeping and fasting over their loss was from Him. (Zechariah 7) They were surprised when He said, "No."

How can you not remember the grief and sorrow that altered your life and put you on a course that was not of your choosing? Can you keep from lamenting? I think the answer is found in the book of Lamentations. A book that was written to lament the fall of Jerusalem. It begins with these words, "How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave. She weeps bitterly in the night with tears on her cheeks." (Lamentations 1:1,2) There is a time to weep.

One of the blessings of the Scriptures is that it sheds eternal light on our earthly sorrows. It is a lamp for our feet and a light to our path. So when the darkness comes year after year and reaches out his scaly hand to bind me again with grief and regret I turn to the book of Lamentations and read, "My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope; The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul,"therefore I will hope in him." (Lamentations 3:20-24)

Oh Lord Jesus, You are the bright and morning star You took our grief and carried our sorrows. Weeping may abide for the night but joy, with it's strength, comes in the morning bringing with it new mercies and Your unfailing love! Oh Lord, let my soul remember this!