Remember Me (Ros' Blog)

Our pastor was recently speaking on what it means for us to remember Jesus. He pointed out that to re-member is to piece back together what is dis-membered, and he suggested that every time we come together as the Body of Christ, we are re-membering Him in our very act of meeting in fellowship.

I looked up the origins of the word remember. Some sources suggest that it comes from the Latin memorari, to be mindful. However, I like my pastor’s suggestion that it might come from membrum, the Latin for a limb or bodily member.

I like it because it suggests that when we remember, we are somehow reintegrating something that has become disintegrated. We lose sight of what Jesus is like in the daily business of our lives, when so many distractions call our attention in other directions. But when we come together to remember Jesus, our image of Him is pieced back together again as we each share with one another the part of Him that we see most clearly.

I like it because it suggests that when we remember one another in prayer, we are bringing someone’s fragmented life to the Lord for Him to put it back together and make it whole again. What a privilege to be able to do that for someone else. What a relief to think others are doing that for me.

And I like it because I recall the dying thief who asked Jesus, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom”, and Jesus’ reply, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” It conjures up for me the picture of a man whose life had been broken by sin and failure, whom Jesus was willing to take up and piece back together not temporarily but eternally.

And for us, whose lives are fractured by pain or weakness or impairment or disability, we have this great, everlasting hope that Jesus’ mission to bring healing and wholeness will culminate in us being not merely pieced back together but made completely new, with resurrection bodies which may, like His, still bear the scars of our lives on earth, but will be limitless in their ability, unimpaired and completely free to fulfil, unrestricted, the eternal plans that God has for our unending future.

Who could you remember in prayer today? Who could you get together with (if not physically then perhaps by phone or social media) to remember Jesus? And what difference does it make to your life today knowing that one day, in your new resurrection body, there will be no limits to your ability to explore and fulfil God’s plans for you?