Thank God I Remember You

Well. I suppose most children, parents and teachers are saying, “Here we go again, another school year.” Everyone has memories of past school years and events but now those same persons are looking to something new. I have been praying in my daily meditation time for these children, their parents and teachers. One day as I was doing so a Scripture came to mind. It was what the Apostle Paul said to the Philippians. Paul says in Philippians 1:3, “I thank my God every time I remember you.” I don’t believe Paul could ever calculate how often he thought of and prayed for the Philippian Christians. I began to think of the parents or guardians of a child beginning school for the first time or a child moving up a grade and the child being in a new environment. Can you imagine those parents or guardians not thinking of their child, not wondering how their child is getting along?When a husband and or a wife must go on a trip and leave their spouse, if they love each other, they think of one another often. If you or I have a loved one in the hospital, we think of that one all the time.Do we in the fellowship of our churches, think like that of one another? “I thank God every time I remember you.” How constantly and intimately love thinks of those loved. Paul says, “I have you in my heart.” Everywhere I go, I carry you around with me, as I think of you, your needs, your successes, and your work. What a wonderful love this was!
Perhaps I can illustrate such a love in this way: when a man is engaged to be married, he thinks often of the girl he loves and he always carries a picture of her in his wallet. Even after he is married, a man will carry with him a photograph of his wife even though it may have been taken many years ago and you would hardly recognize her as the woman who is now his wife. But he carries her picture in his wallet and memories of her in his heart.“I have you in my heart.” If only you and I, through Jesus Christ, could broaden this kind of warmth of fellowship and disciple making, what a difference it would make! “I have you in my heart….every remembrance of you.” What warmth and affection and love there was–between Paul and the Philippian Christians and between the Philippian Christians and Paul.Such a love should characterize the fellowship we have with and for one another. AMEN?
See you soonLove and Prayers-Rick and Nancy