He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4 ESV)
Memories and Hope
Who takes pictures of sad times? I have never seen a photo album made about chicken pox, food poisoning, or getting lost on vacation. We do not want to remember those things. We want to forget them.
Parents worry about creating bad memories for our children. When courting, we want good memories, not embarrassing situations. We try to forget bad jobs, bad cars, and bad haircuts.
I do not understand exactly how memory will work in heaven. I believe we will be so amazed at the new present, and so overwhelmed at the glorious future, that we will not be doing a lot of remembering the past. This life will be shady and gray compared to the full color life of heaven!
But somehow, when we do remember, our memories will be healed. We will not mourn them. We will not weep about them. They will not hurt. Jesus will wipe away every tear.
God does not remember His people’s sin. (Isaiah 43:25) Our sin will not be talked about in heaven, thought about in heaven, or remembered in heaven.
Our mistakes and troubles will not be remembered in heaven. (Isaiah 65:16) Since our ticket into heaven is paid by Christ’s life, our miss-steps, errors, failures, and troubles will not matter anymore.
We will remember Christ’s love. We will remember Christ’s grace. We will remember the faith, and hope, and love that He has granted us. And that will fill our memory banks.
I look forward to those memories. I hope, because God has said so, that the memories of my sin will be wiped out or changed. I hope, because God has said so, that the memories of my rebellions will be wiped out or cleaned. I hope, because God has said so, that the memories of my slips, slides, and falls will be wiped out or fixed.
Take the hope God grants us.