Remember Not

Jesus Blessing Jairus's Daughter by Greg K. Olsen
When a situation seems hopeless, Jesus gives hope and help.

Years and years ago I had a humanities class at BYU.  I did not love the class, but there was a day when the teacher announced that one of my fellow students was going to sing for us.  She sang "O Divine Redeemer" by Charles Gounod.  I had never heard it before and I loved it.  The girl who sang it had a beautiful soprano voice.  Years later I bought a copy of a lower version (which is still too high for me to sing well), and today something reminded me of this song and so I pulled it out to read the words. 

I found it interesting that in a year when our reunion was about remembering -- this song is asking our Redeemer to NOT remember our sins.  "I pray thee, grand me pardon, and remember not, remember not my sins."  The Lord is our Redeemer.  We are going to commit sins even if we have really good intentions not to.  We need to remember what He did for us, and not lose hope.  He is willing forgive us and no longer remember our sins.  We also need to remember, once we are forgiven, to not continue to beat ourselves up over things that are past that can no longer be changed, but to look forward with faith that we are loved, and that we can learn from those sins and continue to practice getting better.

The song ends with the words "Help me my Savior!", and we can be sure that, if we turn to Him in our prayers, and our actions, He will be there to do just that.  He will help.