It’s 709-722-2415, and now you know it, too. However, it won’t help you because that is the phone number of my Uncle Bill and Aunt Dora, who are both with Jesus now. I called them only one time over 40 years ago and their number is still taking up space in my brain. Worse still, 440780 is one of the customer numbers (Hapag-Lloyd) I’m holding onto from my first job after high school 50 years ago! If I could just toss those (along with many other now-useless bits of info) maybe I could manage to avoid answering ‘Of course!’ to the now-dreaded, rude question: Forgot your password, dearie? I hear echoes of the Apostle Paul in this: ‘I want to remember important things but when I try, I find myself remembering mostly useless things. And when I want to forget the useless things, I find myself forgetting mostly the important things. Oh! Wretched man that I am!’ (please pardon my weak attempt at paraphrasing). It’s just weird how my brain sometimes works. And it’s frustrating, too! I’ve heard that people ‘lose’ their glasses on top of their head, their keys in their hand, even where their cars are parked. (for the record: I no longer find it funny when I see someone wandering aimlessly through a packed parking lot).
All thing considered, these are relatively innocuous problems, but losing sight of God’s love for me and beginning to feel as though I’ve been abandoned, now that’s serious! I find our #1 Enemy enjoys infiltrating past our defenses and using insinuations to befuddle us and make us think we’re on our own, that we don’t really have an Advocate, that the Love we once knew was for then, but not for now, not since we’ve gone so far astray, been so disobedient, neglected the then-intimate relationship we once enjoyed. Fortunately, God enjoys successfully slipping past the Enemy’s blockade bringing us reminders of his un-cancellable, unchanging, forever love. These reminders are delivered via The Word, prayer, friends, foes, even random circumstances (like a red cardinal alighting on your window sill next to your breakfast table), and they all restore balance in our souls, strengthening us afresh, opening our eyes in wonder, as if for the very first time, to the uber generous love and affection that is ours. And the best part is, the next time we ‘forget’ He’ll happily do it all over again! PD
