"You Remind Me Of..."

"God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.  So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them."  Exodus 2:24-25

"You Remind Me Of...."
By Rev. William Dohle

My wife and I have a little game we play around our children.  We call it: "Tell me where that comes from..."

We play it whenever our kids do...well pretty much anything.  Jenny will say something like:

"That's SO you!"

Or

"He gets that from your side of the family."

Or

"He or she reminds me of you when they do that!"

I'm sure other families play that game too, but we've taken it to an art.  Everything, and I do mean everything, connects back to someone else in our family.

William's growing stature... "Your father is pretty tall..."
Matthew's red hair... "My grandmother used to have red hair..."
Lynne's personality... "She reminds me so much of your mother!"

Maybe it's good.  It shows that we're all connected to each other.  Maybe it's how we "prove" to each other that our kids really are...our kids!  In any case, our kids remind us of our family which remind us of our kids.  It's a gigantic game of memory!

God played such a game in this passage from Exodus.  The people of Israel, once at home in Egypt, had been enslaved and their cries rose up to God.  Now, God had a choice of what to do here.

God could have ignored them.  He hadn't really spoken to any of them for quite some time.
God could have told them it was their fault.  It was Jacob who led his people into Egypt in the first place.
Or... God could act.

And act God did.  God acted too, not because he had a soft spot in his heart for Israelites, but because, according to Exodus: "...he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob."  In other words... the Israelites REMINDED God of the promises he had made with their forefathers and it was because of the patriarchs that God was concerned about them.

You know, too often we feel that we should stand on our own.  "Judge me," we say.  "By my own actions, not the actions of my family!"  We want to be so individual.  So distinct.  And yet...even with all our independence, we are still products of our families!  They raised us.  They nurtured us.  They may have made mistakes...but we are forever connected to them.  Their memory lives on within us.

God remembers us too, not because we are so important or special on our own, but really all because of Jesus!  It is Jesus and the promises made to us through Jesus that God acts in our lives.  He sends his Spirit...because Jesus promised it.  He forgives our sins...because Jesus promised they would be forgiven.

Just as the Israelites were remembered because of the promises God made with and through the patriarchs, we too are remembered because of the promises God makes through Jesus Christ.  It is Jesus who sparks God's memory.

So...the next time you look at your children or your grandchildren and think about someone they're related to...remember how you, child of God, are remembered because of Jesus.  And every time God looks at you...he remembers the promises he made through him!

Oh the promises you have made through Jesus Christ.  Remember me because of him.  When you look at me, God, may you see Jesus!  Amen.