Family Mottos...

Family mottos.

As I lie in bed this early Tuesday morning, a million thoughts run through my head, as if in preparation for the blank hours that will come to pass later today under anesthesia. HA

Family mottos. Nil Desperandum. That’s the family crest of the House of Hawkins, according to genealogists, and one of the sole reasons why I kept the surname of the Hurricane I was once married to. 

Nil Desperandum. Never Give Up.

Seems fitting for me, even though I was born under the House Of Bailor, which has no family motto on record, seeing as Bailor is a derivative of Biller, Bahler, Behler, or Balorski  -- my granddad’s favorite joke that we were Polish. HA

Personally, I think our family motto should be Praeteritorum Obliviscuntur. Forget the Past. Even people on the maternal side like to fling that one around. Stop bringing up the past, you’re not very forgiving. Stop focusing on the past, you can’t change it. Stop talking about what happened yesterday, it’s over. Is it??? Is it really???

Forget the Past. Seems like sound advice, doesn’t it? Very progressive, forgiving,  transforming.

Forget the Past. On closer examination, a little too simple, and a little too broad.

Certainly Retain the Good Memories is in order, quite uplifting and positive, but still overlooking One Huge Detail for a Christian heritage.

Praeteritorum Obliviscuntur applies to folks like Jehovah’s Witnesses, who don’t observe anniversaries or birthdays or holidays or other Past Occasions. They choose to live in the now – which is not all bad…

…except…

…especially for Christians, whose very essence focuses on a pivotal Moment in The Past.

The crux, literally , The Cross, of Christianity, lies in the past. Jesus’ choice to follow the Great Plan of Redemption lies totally in the past. His Birth, Ministry, Death and Resurrection are all permanently affixed to an era in human history from which THE ENTIRE WORLD KEEPS TIME.

A.D. Anno Domini. B.C.E. Before the Common Era. However you want to phrase it.

The Jews count back to 5772, so even they keep time according to God, if not the birth of Christ, from which all time is measured.   ALL TIME.

Forget the past belongs to those who are not accountable for what they have done, the ones who take forgiveness as a blanket fix-all for everything. Just forget about it. Ho-kay. 

We certainly can forget the past.

Or can we? Should we? DO WE???

Do we consciously block out the birth of our children, the touch of a loved one that has passed away, the sweet memory of a first kiss? Can we really forget how someone treated us for good or for bad, as it gently or forcefully shapes how we go about our own lives in model or avoidance of those memories? Should we forget Christmases and summer days and the first day of kindergarten, the smell of jasmine and the taste of biscuits on Grandma’s table? Shall we completely obliterate everything that has ever happened simply because God forgave our sins and we are free in Christ, and skip happily along to heaven?

No.

As Christians, we focus on The Past. The Scriptures. The Life of Christ. The life of the apostles. The life of the early Church. The Eucharist. The Crucifixion, the Resurrection – and we look forward to the Second Coming – but in the meantime, we are being saved, every day, from our own past, by that of Jesus.

That doesn’t mean you are given a clean slate from everything that ever happened. 

You are given a clean slate from The Consequences of every thing that ever happened in your life.

Big Difference.

God gave us memories to be able to cling to the Cross, and to each other, in fellowship.

Otherwise we’d just be busy bees, cross-pollinating the Gospel to flowers everywhere with no memory of why we are doing so.

Today I personally am moving forward from StupidCancer with my reconstruction. The scars on my chest will be replaced by something more regular, but I won’t forget them, nor will I want to. Those scars have rebuilt me from the inside out, causing me to look beyond my appearance and into my heart as to the woman God has called me to be.

Busy bees are awesome. They work hard and keep the plant kingdom alive, in turn keeping us alive. But not one of them has a name to remember, nor an eventful life, nor a family motto. They live they work they die. No memories, no history.

Praeteritorum Obliviscuntur. Nope.

Memoriam Salvatoris. Remember your Savior. He is the past, the present, and the future.

Memoriam Salvatoris. Remember. Your Savior.