Remembering

My grandmother has Alzheimer’s. It’s always been sad to me that she can’t remember her faith. That she no longer knows the name of Jesus or takes any comfort in His Word. But today it struck me as a testimony. A reminder that our faith isn’t dependent on our works. That God is the One who keeps us. 

We are all like my grandmother. Though many of us are capable of remembering Jesus, of reading the Word, of seeking Him in prayer, we too often forget in our day to day lives. When the busyness or stress or pain or self-reliance rises to the forefront. Sometimes that means forsaking our devotional time altogether, sometimes it means placing our hope for our faith in our own ability to know God, but both of these mean forgetting God. Forgetting that He is the One who did the work. Fully. He didn’t meet us halfway; He covered us completely. He won us, and we never have and never will do anything to deserve it. 

Forgetfulness is actually one of the biggest overarching stories of the Bible. The Israelites forgot…

But God remembered them. 

When they forgot God was good, His goodness never left them.

When they forgot God was faithful, He remained faithful to them.

When they fell away, God pursued them.

Every act of devotion was by His hands. By His ability. By His breath in them. 

And that’s what we too often miss. Our worship, our prayer, our transformation are not marks of our faithfulness but marks of His. It’s the effect of His life and love holding ours. It’s a response to His goodness and His presence. And when we change, He doesn’t. When we are faithless, He is faithful. When we can’t, He can. Our salvation belongs to Him, and it is only by His covenant love that we are kept in Him.

I have never worried about my grandmother’s salvation because my God holds her secure. And while it’s sad that she no longer has the ability to know Him in the ways she once did, she is still His. Her heart can’t remember His Name, but He remembers her. He holds her. He loves her. He pursues her. He rests with her. And He doesn’t require anything of her. Any standard of devotion that her childlike mind could not meet. Any reciprocation that her withered mind cannot hold. Her salvation is by His love, His faithfulness, His pursuit, His devotion, His memory. 

And that is a beautiful testimony.