Not Able to Forget

Scripture References: Genesis 9:15-16; 2 Corinthians 1:8-9

He stormed ashore on Utah Beach, June 6, 1944, a young infantryman, alert and frightened. In the village of Sainte Mere Eglise, he blundered into a German patrol and instinctively fired his submachine gun, killing two. Terrified, he ran and took refuge in a nearby house, hiding beneath curtains stretched around a child’s crib.

In 1966, he returned to the village, found the corner where he had killed the enemy, and strode down a side street to the house where he had hidden. To his amazement, he recognized the woman who answered his knock: she had helped him to hide in 1944. Shown to all upstairs bedroom, he saw the same crib in a corner, curtains still hanging around the bottom. Twenty-two years, and he remembered it all. Twenty-two years, and he could never forget, if another forty years passed.

Some experiences stay seared into our memories, alive to the touch, in that strange area of the brain that chooses to just as completely forget others. For good or bad, these living memories remain, soothing or afflicting, assuaging or tormenting us. Whether for enjoyment or despair, memory rouses itself and leaf’s through our mental files, poring over all, keeping some, dismissing others . . . Some bringing a smile, others a sigh . . . frozen instants from an unrepeatable past. We can delight in the past our future rehearses by filling the present with spiritual encounters with God.

Courtesy of Speaker’s Sourcebook of New Illustrations by Virgil Hurley © 1995 by Word, Incorporated.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV © 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®
Used by permission. All rights reserved.