Articles
I Remember … But Wish I Didn’t (Sometimes)
I’ve warred against memories for quite some time. Those who know loss will know what I mean.
No one likes bad memories, but it’s the good ones that are worse to recall—because it stabs
into the heart so much deeper. Tired of the pain that they caused me every time I saw them, I
recently wanted to burn all the old photo albums, letters, and other memorabilia from the three
decades of dating through the death of my first wife. I did not destroy these things that were so
precious to me … but that’s emotionally where I was in that moment in my grieving process.
And that’s where God is at the time He called Jeremiah to speak whatever He commanded to a
people who would not listen and would persecute his prophet instead. He said, “I remember the
devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land
not sown. Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest. All who ate of it incurred guilt;
disaster came upon them” (Jeremiah 2:2-3). His bride was precious to Him, and the Bridegroom
would jealously protect her.
At first, this may sound like the whimsical musings of an older man recalling the past, but God is
grieving what He’s lost that He cannot recover … just as I cannot recapture the time of raising
our kids together or the long conversations or dreams that I once shared with the bride of my
youth. Good memories that can no longer be grasped always hurt the worst!
The sin of His people had separated them and estranged their relationship. We can hear how
God hurts when He asks in verse 5, “What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far
from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?” before recounting their
wrongs. God poses the same question to His people today, who are so loved that His Son died
for them, who chase after everything else but Him. Do we grieve Him as well (Ephesians 4:30)?
