Remember remember

Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot...

Words of "Remember Remember" refer to Guy Fawkes with origins in 17th century English history. On the 5th November 1605 Guy Fawkes was caught in the cellars of the Houses of Parliament with several dozen barrels of gunpowder. The following year in 1606 it became an annual custom for the King and Parliament to commission a sermon to commemorate the event. This practice, together with the nursery rhyme, ensured that this crime would never be forgotten!

Then on Remembrance Day, the 11^th November, this day was chosen because this is the day that World War One ended in 1918, when the armistice was signed in Northern France, at 5am. Six hours later, the fighting stopped, and to commemorate this there is a two minute silence in the UK at 11am, every 11 November. The nearest Sunday to the 11th is called Remembrance Sunday, when church services are held in honour of those involved in wars, and wreaths are laid on the memorials, which have a place in every town. A poem called 'For the Fallen' is often read aloud on the occasion; the most famous stanza of which reads:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

I don’t know if you’ve ever given any thought to the fact that God remembers. God is omniscient, by definition. That means He knows everything there is to know. He knows everything that have happened in the past. He knows what is happening at present. And He knows what will happen in the future. This means that all we have done, good and bad, are all known to Him. He has perfect memory of each and every thing including the wrong that we've committed.  When we remember some memories we will have feelings of regret and remorse, sometimes we would wish we could change something that was said or done by us or to us. By experiencing God’s forgiveness we can ‘move on’ from these feelings. God does not mysteriously and suddenly "forget" all the bad and wrong things but because of the death of Jesus he chooses to remember them no more – this is the hope of the Christian faith, forgiveness from God via the experience of knowing Jesus enables us to forgive and be forgiven so that we can be free from the effects of some of the bad memories that we so easily remember and become entrapped within the emotions of these memories.