Remember

Inspired by Deuteronomy 6

Moses stood on a mountain
and looked across the people
God had entrusted him to shepherd.
He saw the land they had been promised,
and knew he could not go
where they were going.

He desperately hoped their future was bright,
and yet he knew,
because he knew them,
the mistakes they would make.
He yearned to give them words of warning
that they would hear.
He prayed for their open hearts
as he spoke to them from the mountain.

I have told you, so many times
what the Lord commands.
Hear me.  Listen to me.
Listen!
Know that what I say comes from your God.
He has charged me to teach you,
and I have frantically tried to obey.

Today I let you go.
Today, you go where God has promised,
and you will no longer have me.
I dream that you, and your children
and all of the generations to follow
will know God.
Will obey God.
Will experience his blessings
and know a fruitful, full life.

Hear, O Israel.
The Lord is your God.
Love him.
Love him with everything you have.
Everything you are.
Love him with all of your thoughts and actions.
Love him with your very being and all of your doing.
Love the Lord you God.

Keep these words in your heart.
Teach them to your children.
Write them on your hands.
Paint them on your walls.
Etch them into the mountains.
Cover your homes with these words.

When you enter this new land,
and you find so many blessings,
gifts from the Lord,
Remember that they are from the Lord.
Remember that your homes, your food,
your cisterns, the water you drink,
the sun that heats your shoulders
and the very land upon which you stand
is a gift.
Do not forget to thank God for it.
Remember your God.
Do not forget what he has done for you.

Remember your slavery in Egypt.
Remember the manna and the fire.
Remember the parted water
and the salvation.
Do not forget your Lord.

Do not repeat the same mistakes.
Learn from your past.
Live a life of obedience to your God.
Heed the words I have spoken,
for I have spoken the words of God.
Do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

Teach your children.
Tell them of the pain and suffering in Egypt,
and the rescue of our God.
Tell them the stories of the Pharaoh,
Teach them about the locusts and the blood,
about the death of the first born.
Do not let them grow up without the knowledge of God.

Remember.
Teach.
Live in obedience to God.
Love the Lord with all that you are.