I have been thinking about memories on and off for a while because I have been sorting out old photographs and scanning negatives. (A long, long job)
I have found at different times that my memories don't always match up with the photographs.
Have you ever discovered that or is it just me?
For example when I was 12 years old I went to Barcelona and because that was a very long time ago I only had a few photos and they were in black and white.
I had not looked at them for a couple of decades and unfortunately when I came to the packet the photos were missing and only the negatives remained. Perhaps later I will find the photos mixed in with some others and perhaps I will never find them but at least I could scan the negatives.
How surprised I was while scanning to find that one of the pictures seemed to be the opposite way round but on checking the strip of negatives I confirmed that I really did have the strip the correct way in the scanner and was
not now looking at the reversal of the photo.
I had always remembered that Monte and her mother were standing to the left hand side of the doorway and facing to the right
but in reality
they were standing in the centre of the doorway and facing left.
In the same strip of negatives there were two pictures of the Cathedral in Barcelona,
one of the top
and one of the bottom
Yet I had always thought I had a photo of the full front of the cathedral.
So it just proves that my memories are not always accurate.
Then just this past Saturday Fred and I went for a walk beside a Lake not too far from where we live and at one point we took a path that was rather steep so laughingly Fred got behind me and pushed me up the slope.
As he did so he said
"Does this remind you of anything?"
I immediately answered
"Slieve Donard"
Now a quick summary is in order here:
I met Fred in the early 70's but we were just friends.
A few years later we were both at a Christian Summer Camp.
One of the days we all went to a town called Newcastle to walk up a mountain
called Slieve Donard.
Without going into too much detail, 6 of us were walking along together when we came to a steep part and the 3 girls laughed and said we were too tired so the boys would have to push us. They said they wouldn't but in the end
Fred did push me up the steep part.
|
On the slope of Slieve Donard I'm between the two Freds
the one in the centre of the picture is the one I married |
So Saturday's reference was to that event in 1975 which will be 40 years ago in July this year. (I have written about the same summer camp in a blog post last year called
What a Face )
Now back to Saturday.
We both laughed and probably both thought I was a lot lighter when he pushed me up Slieve Donard but at least he didn't say it.
Then I asked him
"Do you actually remember pushing me that day or do you just remember me
talking about it throughout the years?"
And his honest answer was
"I think I remember a memory that I have formed because you have talked about it"
Now I had two choices here.
I could have taken the "huff" and been annoyed at him for not remembering something that I had from all those years ago.
OR
I could just accept that we had different memories from that day.
I chose the latter because I know that Fred does not always remember things the same as I do because he doesn't always see things the way I do and vice versa.
Yes even though so many of our memories have been formed together over all these years we each remember some things the same and some things differently.
Even things to do with our relationship? YES!
Even things to do with our love? YES!
Does this matter? NO! but sometimes Yes.
It shouldn't matter because it is just the way we were made; we are both different people and each day is different to each of us even if we share all the events of that day.
We have to accept that each of our memories of our love are different.
We have to accept that each of us will forget certain things about our relationship.
We have to accept that each of us will notice things in our lives differently.
Why? Because our memories and our love are not perfect and neither are we.
However there is a love that is perfect.
The love of God is perfect because God is Perfect and God is Love.
God remembers every single part of our relationship with Him and his memories are perfect.
God will not forget about us, He will not forget how much He loves us.
God's memories of us will be perfect and when He reminds us of something it will be true.
God also knows exactly how we remember things and how we have felt through all of our life.
God knows how we feel right at this very moment.
God's memories of Love are unforgettable and you know what
to God you are unforgettable too.
Is this not the way you want to be loved?
If you don't know this love of God please take a little time to watch the 3 2 1 video on the sidebar.