Thursday, March 18, 2010

4th Week of Lent, Thursday, 18-03-10

Exodus 32 : 7-14
John 5 : 31-47

Just a few days ago, the newspaper featured a 93 year-old man with a big scar at the back of his neck.

He was featured in the papers because he is probably the only survivor of the atrocities committed during Japanese Occupation of Singapore.

He was in a group of eight young men who were beheaded by the Japanese soldiers. Although the blade made a deep cut at the back of his neck and he was left for dead, he eventually survived.

He was interviewed for his first-hand account of what happened during the Japanese Occupation for the sake of the younger generation, lest they forget the price that was paid for not being able to defend ourselves.

Besides individual forgetfulness, the collective forgetfulness of a nation can have disastrous consequences.

Such was the case of Israel. It was not that long since they experienced the liberation from Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea.

But soon they forgot about the God who saved them and they created for themselves a god that cannot save them at all.

In fact, forgetfulness is too lame a word. The word should be stupidity - the Israelites were stupid enough to forget, and for that they had to wander in the desert for 40 years just to have their memory corrected.

The 40 days of Lent is indeed a time for us to recall and remember the saving acts of God in our lives so that we won't forget the His love and mercy for us.

It is also a time to cleanse ourselves of the distractions that have come into our lives that made us forget about God.

Only with a clean and pure heart that is filled with God's love will we be able to bear testimony to God's love for us and for the world.

But our first testimony is to God Himself. To Him alone do we say : You are my God