November is a month of remembering – from All Saints Day to Diwali, Guy Fawkes to Armistice Day, Children in Need to Thanksgiving. Remembering saints and sinners, old and young, light and dark. To Re- member is to put things back together to become one again. Remembering is a positive thing to do – not a morbid dwelling on past events, but a way to make sense and move on.
In Joshua 4:4-7, Joshua calls for each tribe to choose a stone to set up as a memorial for the generations to come. They would see the stones and be told the story of God’s provision and salvation. Memories ground us in our history ensuring that events aren’t wasted but become part of our story, our heritage.
Holder of all my moments in the palm of Your hands,
Breathe Your warm transforming Spirit over my story.
Breathe over my eyes as I awaken to the old and new this day.
Breathe over my nostrils as I inhale the crisp November air and know the sweet fragrance of Your gifts in the present.
Be the breath carrying the leaves as they twizzle and float to the ground.
Breathe over my feet as I kick my way through them, with child-like glee.
Breathe through my replaying memory stuttering like black and white images from a reel-to-reel: the loved ones no longer here; the war happened; family changed – births, deaths, marriages, separations. Different times.
Breathe wisdom through my desire as I seek to sever with or connect to the past.
Breathe Your warm transforming and accepting Spirit over my time this day.
Prayer: Help me to know that just as hindsight can make fools of us all, your compassion turns us into kings and queens of our stories, for there is no crack, crevice or shadow of our lives that is not beloved by You. Amen