God’s Time Capsule: How Memories Capture Divine Creation

Genesis 1:31 “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.” You are good. You were woven perfectly. You were and are made in the image of God. God finds joy in this. God finds joy in you. His intention is for you to find not only joy for yourself, but joy in this life. In the midst of the wilderness and darkness that we encounter, what can breathe into us and give us new life? Jesus. And what is one way that we can experience this? Joy.

Memories capture the moments of joy in this life that we wish we could live out forever. I just got back from a spring break trip on a cruise with some of my very good friends in college. When I stepped foot on campus after coming back from my trip, it was a bittersweet moment as I realized that my time came to an end. But what is more bittersweet is that in 2 months, my college years are coming to an end. Soon I’ll I move into the next stage of my life and I have no idea what holds next. As I try to preserve the present moment and the time that I have left, I try to think of the best way to do this. I can think of no better way than to inspire joy in ourselves, through the creation and preservation of memories.

The way that the human mind cherishes our time here on earth is through the collection of memories. Don’t get me wrong: there are negative memories that we all want to forget and bury into our past. However, I believe that there are positive ones that we can reflect on and are reminders of not only the power of joy, but of the beauty of God’s creation. Our understanding of who God is transcends our own very understanding (Phillipians 4:7). To try to understand the totality of the divine is an attempt that we will never completely fulfill. But to capture the beauty of what is at our disposal is a method that I believe God calls us to employ. It is a method that serves to combat the pain, the anger, the fear, the worry, the uncertainty, the anguish, or whatever burden is weighing you down. Life was meant to be full of flourishing and full of good. Yet the distortion that we see in our world is a reminder that there is not always good. I have written a previous blog post about finding the good, seeing the good, and trying to recognize the good that is there. Memories can preserve the good if we allow ourselves to create the good. The good creates joy, spreads joy, and is joy. Memories capture joy, preserve joy, and are reminders of joy. The way forward in a world full of inequity is a way of creating value, which at its root, stimulates joy.

Each blog post that I have written has a larger theme, that even I myself am starting to realize. It is a theme of liberation, of human action, as a means to achieve joy for ourselves. We cannot be bystanders if we are called to be beacons of light for this world, as agents of change, as producers of joy. God’s design for you is imago dei, his gift for you is a passion and a purpose, and his intent for you is to find joy. Maintain your image, use your gifts, and fulfill His intention by creating beautiful memories that inspire joy as a reminder of the creation of the divine. In my limited time left in college, I want to pursue this. I may not reach all of it, but I want to achieve some of it. People remind me that I am still young and have a whole life ahead of me. If that is the case, then finding joy through memories is a way that I will remember the beauty of Jesus during a time that I am uncertain about many things.

So my call for us is this: In a world full of transgressions, let the moments we have created in the past, the time that we have now, and the opportunities for us in the future, be a reminder that we can all be manufacturers of joy. But we must not wait, for while Jesus took action for us on the cross, we must take action for others and for ourselves to seek out joy. It may not be easy. But friends, come taste and see, for it is worth it.

“I don't think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.” - Anne Frank

“Memory is the treasure house of the mind wherein the monuments thereof are kept and preserved.” - Thomas Fuller