Friend,
Remembering takes work. Forgetting is often effortless.
I’ve re-read books because I had forgotten the plot.
I’ve re-watched movies because I had forgotten the characters.
I’ve re-done conversations because I forgot what we agreed upon.
Remembering is active.
To remember, you often need at least two things:
Something worth remembering.
A cue to prompt you.
It’s strange that we often forget the important things (conversations with our loved ones) and remember the non-important things (who won the 98 Super Bowl), and so the cues become all the more important.
Many years ago, some women had forgotten something important. They had good reason. Life had been chaotic. So many monumental moments happened in the past seven days that there is little reason to think that they would remember a sentence from weeks before, even a monumental sentence. Plus, they were distraught, and remembering light in the darkness is an especially challenging thing when you can’t see ahead.
And so on that morning, 2000 years ago, two men in gleaming clothes said to them, “Remember how he told you… ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again.’
‘Then they remembered his words.”
They needed a cue, a reminder, a prompt to have hope again, and so do we.
Today is Easter, our annual holy-day set aside to prompt us, remind us, cue us that light defeats darkness, that hope triumphs over despair, and that resurrection destroys death.
Love,
Aaron
P.S. This would have been my Easter Sunrise Service message (if not for the constant rain we have had in Tulsa.)