We are forgetful. Whether it’s a set of keys, an appointment, or, umm…, the occasional child, sometimes we forget things. And our forgetfulness is a great hindrance to our faith.

God seems very concerned to me about that forgetfulness. He doesn’t want us to forget; He wants us to remember. In fact, in a very basic sense, that’s what all the feasts of the Old Testament were about – remembering.

“Remember the way I brought you out of Egypt as slaves.”

“Remember how I gave you the law.”

“Remember your time in the wilderness.”

And then we come to the New Testament, and Jesus continues to pattern:

“Take this bread and this wine and remember. Always remember.”

It’s our circumstances in life that tend to make us forget who God is, what He’s done, and how He has provided for us in the past. When we encounter difficulty in life, our immediate thoughts are ones of abandonment and disapproval: “God can’t really love me. He’s not here with me. If He were, then my husband wouldn’t have left. I wouldn’t have cancer. I still wouldn’t be looking for a job. Our adoption would have gone through. Life wouldn’t hurt so much.”

This is where remembering comes in. When we sit back and reflect for a second, we remember that this circumstance isn’t the first tough one we’ve encountered. And God was faithful in the others. In fact, if we really think about it, we realize that even though the temporary situation was tough, God was working in unseen ways to bring redemptive good out of it. But it’s hard to remember amidst all the pain of the present. But God has given us stuff to help us recall His faithfulness and character.

He’s given us the Bible to remind us of countless generations of His faithfulness. He’s given us His Holy Spirit to remind us we are His children. And He’s given us something else, too – He’s given us each other. The church is a gift of God to help us remember.

This is at least part of what Paul is saying in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”

God doesn’t just comfort us as individual so we can feel better; He comforts us so that we might comfort another in a similar circumstance. We remember, and then we help someone else remember.

The church is a string around its own finger.