There is one thing even God forgets

An elderly man was sitting on a park bench in tears. A policeman came along and asked what was wrong.

“I’m 80 years old,” sobbed the man. “I have a 28-year-old wife at home. She’s beautiful, charming and madly in love with me.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“I forgot where I live!”

It’s tough getting old, isn’t it? My problem is that I stop to think and forget how to start again. Or, I know that info is in there somewhere, but the wheels are turning slower these days and it takes forever to pull it up.

This forgetting can be embarrassing. I made a phone call the other day, and as soon as I dialed, I forgot whom I called. As the phone was ringing, my mind wandered somewhere, and when my call was answered, they were saying hello and I was trying to figure out who they were. I’m too young for this.

At least I don’t have amnesia. I read an Associated Press article about Edward Lighthart, the 53-year-old Seattle man who emerged from Discovery Park early on July 30. He knew he didn’t live in Seattle, but was unsure of anything else. He told police that he had no idea how he got to Seattle. He flagged down a bus driver, who called police for help.

He spent nearly a month at Swedish Medical Center, where doctors told him he has a rare form of dissociative amnesia. After the Seattle Times published an article about him Aug. 20, friends and relatives who saw the story identified him as Lighthart.

Police confirmed his identity and say there’s no doubt the mystery man is Lighthart, but Lighthart has not figured that out yet.

Research shows Lighthart worked as an international business consultant and lived in Paris, Vienna, Sydney, Shanghai and Slovakia. He’s fluent in French and German, and has memory fragments of living in Shanghai, Paris and Vienna.

He grew up in Tucson, but says he has few memories of that. He says he doesn’t recognize his parents’ names and has no recollection of a sister that lives in Las Vegas.

That’s pretty wild, huh? I may be slowly losing my mind in bits and pieces, but I don’t have amnesia. Neither does God.

We can be thankful that God knows our name, knows who we are, knows our burdens and concerns, and knows our needs. He is all knowing and truly cares.

Yet, there’s one thing our all-knowing God chooses to forget. When we turn from our sin, confess our failures and ask forgiveness, God promises to forgive, and then He forgets our sin. Not out of absentmindedness, but out of choice.

Jeremiah 31:34 reads, “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

I’m thankful that when we confess our sin, God is faithful to forgive us our sin, and then He’s a quick forgetter. How quickly do we forget when others hurt us?

David L. Chancey, is pastor, McDonough Rd. Baptist Church, Fayetteville, Georgia. The church family meets at 352 McDonough Rd., just past the department of drivers’ services building. Join them Sunday for Bible study at 9:45 a.m. and worship at 10:55 a.m.