I usually try to write meditations in advance. This meditation (#4) I’m writing on a spring day. On the high Cape mountain peaks, snow layers are still thick. Regardless of what the thermometer says today, I know: spring is here. How so? Yesterday I drove around Nieuwoudtville and saw flowers in abundance. Plates and plates of them. A day or so earlier, the flowers of the Biedouw Valley were on the menu. An excess of colours.
Søren Kierkegaard, the Danish theologian, is known for his saying: “We remember backwards in order to live forwards.” And that’s exactly what I’m doing today: I close my eyes, see the flowers, even smell the buchu bushes. I will never be able to forget. A new season is here. Even though I’m still in winter clothes. Even though it feels different now.
Abraham had to learn it. The Israelites had to learn it. Jesus’ disciples had to learn it. And the church through the ages—of which you and I are a part—keeps learning it. What? Look back and you will see in your mind’s eye how the faithful God has remained faithful to His promise of faithfulness. At this moment it might not feel that way. Precisely then you need to cry out: “Remember! Remember!” “Israel, remember that the Lord is God alone” (Deut 6:4, The Message). “Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years” (Deut 8:2, NIV). Hopelessness is dispelled by remembering!
As Kierkegaard said: remember to remember. “The Lord’s eyes range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him” (2 Chron 16:9). Remember to remember: “He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep” (Ps 121:4).
This is one of the secrets to living fearlessly forward.
PRAYER: Help me not to forget, Holy Spirit.
MUSIC: We’re watching a music video of “Blom in Elke Vrou” by Petronel Baard. It was recorded on 21 May 2021 in the straw-roofed cottage, Klein-Brakivier, with Luc Prinsloo and Deon Scheepers. Orchestra: Franco Engelbrecht, Johan Engelbrecht, Lelanè van der Merwe. Words and music: Petronel Baard. “There’s a flower in every woman, one you remember, worldwide there’s a flower in every woman. Seasons come and go, for each one a name, from North to South there’s a flower in every woman.” #BlomInElkeVrou!