It’s Memorial Day week.

I don’t know if you commemorate Memorial Day or how you commemorate it. Whether it is cookouts, laying US flags on veterans’ graves, or going to an official city program.  

No matter what you do (or not) during Memorial Day, I do think remembrance is important. But what is remembrance and how do you remember? 

As a child, I loved to trace my father’s pulpit that has Luke 22:19 engraved in it: Do this in remembrance of me. Jesus said it to his disciples during the Last Supper when they broke bread and drank. Jesus knew his death was imminent while his disciples were unaware. Jesus was giving final instructions to his disciples, telling them what to do to continue his legacy and what to do in remembrance of him. We know through the letters in the New Testament that the disciples carried on Jesus’ works, they disciple other people and ministered to other churches. They did what Jesus did to them. 

I have lost all four grandparents. The first one died twelve years ago this summer and the last died a year ago this summer, but I still remember both as vividly as the other. I still do acts of remembrance for them and carry on their legacy in different ways. For the one who died twelve years ago (how has it been that long?), I see her in my job as I advocate or encourage. For the one who died a year ago (edit, eleven months), I see her as I craft or research genealogy.  

For the ones who had gone before us, they leave behind something. Sometimes it is tangible things, like jewelry or an artifact, and other times, oftentimes, it is a legacy. The grandmother who died nearly twelve years ago, I had just turned eighteen when she died and now, I am thirty. I have done so much since she’s been gone and yet, I do things that stop me in my tracks to say, “Grandma? Is that you?” I have not forgotten her. 

I wonder if one of the disciples ever thought the same thing? Perhaps, Peter said something and just stopped with a small smile. Remembering when Jesus did the same and he did not realize he had done so until later.  

I think it’s because when someone dies, they never truly leave us.   

You remember them and the things that made them them. You might even do particular things in your life, intentionally and unintentionally, that reminds you of them. For instance, celebrate their birthday and death anniversary. You do these things because it brings you comfort and peace. Then life continues, you fall back into a routine but every now and then, you smile softly or get teary eyed with a song plays and you remember. 

Which isn’t a bad thing.  

In fact, I think it makes you human to do things in remembrance of others. 

Elizabeth