BBC Radio Leicester Thought for the Day
© John Denney 8 June 2004
Did you see the transit of Venus yesterday? When Venus passed between the earth and the
sun? I watched safely by internet as the
little black dot of Venus slowly moved across the face of the sun. The last time anyone saw it, it was probably
the Astronomer Royal in your great-grandfather’s
day. The Bible says that God was the
first astronomer: He counts the stars and assigns each a name.[1]
Human astronomers astonish me. They can predict exactly when amazing
astronomical events occur. Down to the
fraction of a second. It’s a
mystery. Higher mathematics, they say. When I was a sixth-former at the Wyggy[2],
I could integrate and differentiate equations and do trigonometry with the best
of them, but it’s all gone. pr2 is about my limit these days.
Do you get those “senior moments” like me? You know, when you go into the shed to get
something, and then can’t remember why you went there. Or an old friend bumps into you in the street
with a cheery “Hello” and you can’t remember his name. One evening a few weeks
ago, I should have been brushing my teeth before bedtime but realised I had
lathered up, ready for a shave. I’m not
alone, though. Yesterday, my wife
treated me to a lunch at a pub about five miles away. Actually, she wanted me to be a beast of
burden in fetching something from a shop near the pub. But that’s another story. We were reading the menu when she realised
her purse was missing. A panicky search
of the pub and the car park produced negative results. So it was back in the car, home, and there
was her purse, sitting smugly on a shelf.
We have to make a special effort to remember
things. Last Sunday, the whole of Europe
remembered D-Day, the crucial moment in the war to liberate Europe from the
would-be Nazi empire. The sixth of June
happens to be my wedding anniversary too, so D-Day reminds me that it was
Denney-Day, and I get the roses and the choccies in.
God’s memory is different from ours, though. Once our sins are forgiven, God entirely
forgets them. They’re wiped from the
records. But God remembers the good
things we do. The psalmist said this: God keeps
track of the decent folk; what they do won't soon be forgotten[3].
Now,
where did I park my car ? …